Underneath the Underneath
by Crazy Hyper Lady
Summary: "Quick question," Kakashi started again, "Why do your teammates think you're a boy, Naruto-chan?" he raised his visible eyebrow. The adventures of Uzumaki Naru! Yes, that does mean fem!naru. Butterfly-effect AU-ness starting from academy graduation. Chunin exam test 3 Prelims in progress.
1. Prologue

Welcome to this epic fan-made Naruto adventure. Naruto and associated characters and places are property of the genius, creative prowess that is Kishimoto Masashi-sama. Enjoy this teasing prologue and then go on to enjoy the rest of the story!

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><p>Jōnin Hatake Kakashi, of course, had to pass this team (the council had given him no choice), but he was glad he didn't have to take his test to the extreme to get them to realize what he was actually testing. In fact, he hadn't even gotten to the end of his regular test (that every other team had failed).<p>

The copy ninja realized that even if he hadn't been forced into it… he would have passed this team. That thought made him smile.

"We are officially Team 7!" he eye-smiled at the three genin, they grinned back, "We'll start our formal duties tomorrow. You guys did well today, good job."

Sasuke and Sakura smirked and smiled respectively before turning to leave. Kakashi made to walk off as well before Naruto's voice stopped him.

"Hey! You guys! Still tied to a log here! Help me out!" the blonde continued screaming until his two teammates were out of earshot. Kakashi sighed; he would have to work on the whole team-in-real-life-and-not-just-in-the-field thing.

He stepped once more into view of the blonde.

"Kakahsi-sensei! You came back for me!"

"Doesn't the academy teach how to escape from ropes like these?" Kakashi asked in a bored voice.

He only watched for a moment as the dead last of the academy sputtered incoherently (and he wasn't getting any sort of sadistic enjoyment out of it, honest) before helping out.

"Quick question," Kakashi started again.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked as the ropes slid off.

"Why do your teammates think you're a boy, Naruto-chan?" he raised his visible eyebrow.

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><p>Drop a review if you feel so inclined: tell me about grammar, or spelling, or confused facts, or whatever you so desire to tell me about. :D Also if you have any ideas that would make the story better please do drop a line in the review box, always looking for good constructive criticism.<p>

To be updated on Mondays. :)


	2. Beginnings

Here we are at chapter 1~ enjoy! Disclaimer still applies. Thanks so much for all the alerts, reviews and favs! It was the biggest response I've ever had for first chapter (or even a second or third), I hope I don't disappoint!

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><p>"<em>Quick question," Kakashi started again.<em>

"_Yeah?" Naruto asked as the ropes slid off._

"_Why do your teammates think you're a boy, Naruto-chan?" he raised his visible eyebrow._

"Oh! You noticed Kakashi-sensei? I'm impressed, not a lot of people do," the newly-revealed girl grinned at him.

Kakashi wouldn't say that he _noticed_ anything. It was more along the lines of: he knew Minato-sensei had a daughter and this was most certainly his teacher's child. Kakashi frowned as he realized: if this had been the daughter of anyone else he probably _wouldn't_ have noticed. "My question still stands, Naruto."

"Well," Naruto scratched at her whiskered cheek absentmindedly, "People always pick on girls for being weak crybabies so I just decided not tell people that I'm a girl. Well... I don't tell anyone that I'm a boy either; I just let them believe what they want to. Most people just assume. It's been like that ever since I was little," there was something painful hidden in her voice at the last sentence that Kakashi caught. "That's why I want to be Hokage! So people won't judge me just because of what I look like or just because I'm a girl and they'll respect me, believe it!"

Seeing underneath the underneath was really an understatement in this situation, "How many people know you're a girl?"

"Well… Iruka-sensei, Hokage-ojii-san, Teuchi-ojii-san, Ayame-chan…oh! Asuma-ojii does…" Naruto paused, thinking, "and you, I suppose, Kakashi-sensei. Other people might know too, but most people think I'm a boy because I'm so awesome!"

"Hmm, alright," Kakashi grinned, an entertaining idea forming in his mind, "Let's see how long it takes your teammates to find out. After all, you guys are supposed to start getting to know each other, especially if we're going to be doing missions together."

Naruto looked up at him, "Okay, Kakashi-sensei," her face scrunched up in thought at the request.

"It can be our little secret to test their ability to see underneath the underneath," Kakashi ruffled Naruto's hair in a fashion that would soon become a habit, the confusion on her face melted away with his words, "See you tomorrow for our first mission," he said before making a seal and using a shunshin to get back to the Hokage tower.

.!.

"Come in, Kakashi," the Hokage looked to the window where said copy-nin was waving.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi said calmly, as if he hadn't just crawled through the office window.

"What do you want, Kakashi?"

"I have a few questions regarding the behavior of certain members of my new team."

"Naru, correct?"

The jōnin nodded, "and why she isn't thought of as a 'she' in particular. Also… where did Naru'_to'_ come from?"

Sarutobi chuckled, "Her 'nickname' came from her beloved ramen, of course…"

-flashback-

"_Hey, hey! Ojii-san!" a young girl sitting next to the Hokage in the Ichiraku Ramen stand pulled on his sleeve._

"_Yes?" he replied with a smile._

"_What's this?" she asked, pointing to the swirly fish cake in her ramen bowl._

"_That's a naruto, Naru-chan."_

"_Naru…to," she paused before grinning, "Just like my name, Ojii-san!"_

_The Third Hokage grinned up at the smiling shop owner over the young girl's exuberance. "Not quite, Naru-chan."_

"_But I like it!" she insisted adamantly, "Ojii-san should call me Naruto-chan now, like the ramen!"_

_The shop owner hid his laugher behind a seemingly innocent coughing attack as Sarutobi worked to control his own mirth, "Oh? Would you like that?"_

_Blonde hair bounced wildly with her affirmative nod, "yes!"_

_Sarutobi couldn't hold in his chuckles anymore and ruffled her hair affectionately, "Ok then, Naruto-chan," he stood and placed a few bills on the counter for lunch._

-end-

The Hokage smiled at the memory, "she was quite adamant about it," he said to the dumbfounded Hatake.

"If she's gone by that name for so long, I don't doubt it," Kakashi murmured, "The gender-bending?"

"Another incident a short while later gave me the idea," The Third continued.

-flashback-

"_Ojii-san!" Naru burst into his office one afternoon with the attendant running after her._

"_I'm sorry Hokage-sama, she insisted and I couldn't-," Sarutobi waved her excuses off._

"_It's quite alright, you can go," the attendant nodded and closed the doors behind her, "Naruto…" he sighed as he looked down at the girl. He had though she would rethink the whole Naruto thing after a while, but the name had stuck, "What did you do to your hair?"_

_She blinked up at him, forgetting what she was about to say, "Hm? Oh… I cut it," she said simply. Sarutobi only looked blandly at the poor golden locks. They were uneven and sticking up in all different directions instead of her usual messy bob. It reminded him distinctly of her father._

"_Why?"_

"_Well… I fell asleep when I was chewing some gum and it got stuck in my hair. It wouldn't come out so I used some scissors… but then my hair was uneven so I cut it all! What do you think, Ojii-san?" her face was set in a slightly embarrassed grin as she placed a hand behind her head to scratch the back of her neck. Sarutobi blinked at how… Minato-esque the gesture was._

"_Well… I suppose it won't take that long to grow out again," he reasoned._

"_What? But I like it!" she pouted, "I'm gonna keep it!" she childishly stuck her tongue out at him. She was only five._

"_Alright then," he conceded easily, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. She would grow out of a tomboy phase soon enough, he reasoned with himself, "what did you want to talk to me about?"_

_She had to think for a moment before she remembered, "Oh!" a grin lit up her eyes, "I was just wondering if you would take me out for ramen."_

-end-

"She looked so much like Minato when he was young at that moment," The Third recalled with a bittersweet expression on his face, "up until that point she had been fairly well protected from the public view and I would have never forgiven myself if anything… untoward… were to happen to her once she started getting out more and attending the academy," the implication was clear to Kakashi (and he probably would have never forgiven himself either had something like that happened). "So I spoke to her about keeping her true gender… not hidden, so-to-speak, but just not as obvious as it could be. I knew it would save her from some situations that would otherwise cause irreparable harm."

"She agreed so easily?"

Sarutobi nodded, "She spoke of how she'd seen a girl being teased on the playground by several boys once for wanting to become ninja, and then watching the girl beat them up. Naru decided then that she wanted to be a ninja; my suggestion went right along with her plans. 'Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't do everything a boy can, I'll prove it too!' she told me. She is, essentially, hidden in plain sight. No one bothers to look closer because of her… circumstances."

Kakashi blinked, "That is… quite ingenious Hokage-sama."

"I've had my share of experience in deception, Kakashi, besides," he paused with a smile, "she liked her hair and wasn't about to change it."

The jōnin eye-smiled back before continuing, "When will you stop asking her to do this?"

It was Sarutobi's turn to blink, "I never asked her to do it in the first place, Kakashi, I only suggested it. She's the one who decided to go through with it," the usually calm masked man made a small noise of surprise, "when, or if at all, she decides to openly reveal herself is entirely up to her."

Kakashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well, this certainly makes teaching them more interesting." Before he used a shunshin, Sarutobi could've sworn he saw the copy ninja grinning.

.!.

"Ojii-san!" Naruto called as she opened the door to the Hokage's office, "Ojii-san! Guess what!"

Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork, "Ah, what is it Naruto-chan?"

"We passed! And Kakashi-sensei figured out I was a girl too! He's really good!"

The Hokage chuckled, "I would expect him to be very good. He's one of my most respected jōnin."

"I bet he's ultra strong and nothing can beat him!" Naruto grinned up at the laughing Hokage. There was an unspoken glint in her eyes that said she would train hard to counter her own statement.

"Something like that," he had noticed that she took a strong liking to people who figured out her true gender, for only a few ever had, Hatake Kakashi being the latest. Umino Iruka was the second after his own son, Asuma. That reminded him; "Naruto-chan, I forgot to tell you earlier that-," he was cut off by the window opening behind him.

"Hey Pops! Just wanted to stop by to tell you my team passed," a tall man with a beard carrying a lit cigarette at the corner of his mouth leaned against the window sill.

"Asuma-ojii!"/"…Asuma is back." A blonde girl shouted at the same time the Hokage finished his thought.

"Hey Naru-chan," Asuma greeted with a grin, quickly jumping though the window to catch the girl who had launched herself at him, "Good to see you again."

Naruto gave him a tight hug, "You too, Asuma-ojii," she replied as he set her down again.

"Still hiding as a boy?" he asked.

"Believe it!" Asuma laughed and fluffed her already messy hair.

"Good for you! I also hear you just passed the genin exams."

"Yeah! Kakashi-sensei already figured out I'm a girl too."

"He always was a smart one," Asuma nodded, "I just took on a genin team, so we may be able to see each other for missions every once in a while."

"That would be so cool! How long have you been back from your super secret mission?"

Sarutobi shook his head and turned back to his work as his son and his would-be-granddaughter went on for a while before they exited via window, presumably headed toward Ichiraku's.

.!.

Team 7 headed back to the mission desk after another successful mission. They had weeded a garden, painted a fence, and built a shed in much less time than it really should have taken them (mostly thanks to Naruto's abundance of Shadow Clones).

Kakashi smiled as he looked over his genin team, they had come a long way already in the few days since they'd become a team. Naruto and Sasuke hadn't even fought on this mission! _Though_, Kakashi's thoughts paused as he continued to contemplate, _it could be the fact that they didn't really have a chance to this time._

Shaking his head lightly he decided to go with the more positive thought.

"Say that again, Jerk!"

Kakashi sighed. There went his positive thought.

"Idiot! Naruto!" Sakura punched the blonde over the head, "Stop starting fights with Sasuke-kun!"

"But… but Sakura-chan he started it!"

Sakura went on in a rant how her precious Sasuke-kun would never-

"Shut up, Sakura," Sasuke intoned, giving the despairing Naruto a quick glance. It was just about as guilty as Sasuke ever looked (because he had indeed started it this time... as he did most of the time).

Kakashi's visible eye widened. Sasuke had never verbally stood in for Naruto before, he almost giggled as his positive thoughts returned. His students were making progress after all!

"After we report in, why don't we go to lunch?" the silver-haired jōnin suggested, all three of the pre-teens stopped to look up at him, hopeful, "My treat," he continued with a sudden giddy feeling rising in his chest.

"Ichiraku!" Naruto called instantly, grabbing Kakashi's arm to get him to walk faster.

Sasuke smirked and turned away.

"Yeah!" Sakura pumped a fist with a wide grin before realizing what she was doing and, embarrassed, turned away shyly.

Naruto blinked when Kakashi's arm suddenly disappeared from her grip only to reappear on her short, wild hair to mess it up a bit further. She looked up to his eye-smiling face and grinned back.

"Come on, Sakura-chan!" Naruto then grabbed Sakura, who was starting to fall behind, "Kakashi-sensei's taking us out to lunch. We have to hurry before he changes his mind!"

.!.

"Naruto!" Teuchi greeted warmly as the girl entered his stand, "Oh! And Hatake-san, I haven't seen you in a while. Welcome."

"Thanks," Kakashi replied.

"Who are your friends, Naruto?" the stand owner turned back to his best costumer.

"This is Sakura-chan and Sasuke," Naruto replied, pointing to her team.

"It's nice to meet you," they voiced together, bowing slightly.

"You as well," Teuchi replied, "What will everyone be having today?"

"Miso for me!" Naruto jumped onto a stool.

"Beef," Kakashi sat down next to the blonde with Sasuke grabbing the chair next to him and Sakura the chair after.

"Pork," Sasuke grunted.

"Same," said Sakura, "but could I just get a small bowl? I'm on a diet."

"Of course," Teuchi replied, "Ayame! Come on out and help me with this!"

"Yes Father!" A teenage girl stepped out from the back, "Oh! Naruto-ch-kun," she stumbled over the suffix, suddenly noticing Naruto had friends. Sasuke looked up suspiciously, "How are you today?"

"I'm great, Ayame-nee-san! Kakashi-sensei's treating us all to lunch!" she pointed to her sensei, "These are my teammates, Sasuke and Sakura-chan!"

"It's nice to meet you."

"Were you about to call Naruto… chan?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow with a smirk.

Ayame glanced nervously to Naruto, who shrugged in a non-caring manner, "Yeah. Naruto-kun has been coming here ever since he was little. I used to call him –chan, but I'm trying to break the habit."

"Heh," Sasuke glanced over at his blonde teammate, "Naruto-_chan_, hu'?"

Naruto shot a smirk back, "Yeah? What of it, Sasuke-_chan_?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, he had expected to goad his teammate into a fight with that one.

"Now, now you two," Kakashi intervened, "no starting a fight or I'm not paying."

Sasuke turned away, seemingly totally disinterested all of a sudden (_Which is_, Kakashi thought, _his way of losing a verbal argument demurely_) and Naruto closed her mouth, stopping whatever insult had been on its way out, horrified at the thought of losing lunch.

"You certainly know how to handle these kids, Hatake-san," Teuchi had returned with two Pork Ramen and placed them in front of Sakura and Sasuke.

"Oh, but I asked for a small one…" Sakura protested weakly.

Teuchi winked at her, he knew what his costumers really wanted, "Oh… so you did, that's entirely my fault. I'll only charge you for a small, Hatake-san. So you, Sakura-chan, can feel free to eat however much you may or may not want."

Sakura smiled up at him, "Thanks."

Ayame came up from behind as Teuchi grinned back, "Anything for a friend of Naruto-kun's," she said smiling as Kakashi and Naruto were handed their ramen. Sakura spared a glance for her blonde teammate, who was already eagerly digging in, with a bit of wonder. Who knew the loud-mouth idiot had such good friends at the ramen stand?

Team 7 talked among themselves, all were silently glad that none of them were fighting. This would be a day he would remember for a long time, Kakashi thought, looking cheerfully over his students. This was finally the start of them actually making an attempt to get along and Kakashi couldn't be prouder of them.

.!.

"Come on!" Naruto whined a few weeks later, "We've been doing boring missions for months now! I want to do something exciting! Believe it!"

Kakashi sighed; at least she was only exaggerating a little.

Sakura nodded at Naruto, not daring to say anything out loud, while Sasuke's eyes lit up in interest at the prospect.

Only a few minutes of debate later the Third Hokage agreed, "Alright, I'm going to give you a C-rank mission."

"YES!" Naruto did a victory dance, Sakura grinned and Sasuke smirked.

"You'll be escorting a certain person," Naruto lit up and started spouting off some nonsense about feudal princesses or the such-like, "Bring in the client!"

A drunken man entered through the doors and ticked Naruto off in just about the same second, "These brats are going to be my guards? They don't even look old enough to be out of dippers yet!"

Kakashi sighed again, restraining the blonde-turned-client-mauler. This was going to be a long trip.

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><p>End of Chapter 1: Starting into the Wave arc. Will Sakura and Sasuke ever find out Naruto's really a girl?<p>

Note: Naruto's name in this is Naru, but she will be referred to as Naruto until about the time after the Chūnin Exam arc, maybe starting at the time jump to shippuden.

Something else to Note (for those who asked): Scenes that aren't written in the story (such as the bell test last chapter, and other scenes in upcoming chapters) are basically the same as the manga or anime depicts them to be. You can take your pick because as far as I can tell the Anime depicts the manga almost perfectly (excepting all the random side arcs that come up). But I use references from both the Manga and the Anime so if you're ever confused about something just drop a line and I can tell you where I got it from.

Drop a review if you feel so inclined: tell me about grammar, or spelling, or what you thought about the beginning of the team bonding, or maybe Kakashi's ever-interesting thoughts. :D Also if you have any ideas that would make the story better please do drop a line in the review box, always looking for good constructive criticism.

Until next Monday! :)


	3. Land of Wave: Part 1

Welcome to Chapter 2! Thanks for the completely amazing response from everyone! :D Please do enjoy!

Note: Remember that scenes not written out like the Demon Brothers fight here are as the manga/anime depicts... and that the disclaimer still applies and always will.

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><p><em>A drunken man entered through the doors and ticked Naruto off in just about the same second, "These brats are going to be my guards? They don't even look old enough to be out of dippers yet!"<em>

_Kakashi sighed again, restraining the blonde-turned-client-mauler. This was going to be a long trip._

.!.

There was silence on the path as Kakashi tied the Demon Brothers to a nearby tree. He turned back to survey his team one more time. Naruto was holding her left hand where she had been cut (and poisoned, he might add), Sasuke stood with an indifferent look (honestly, did he ever _change_ his expression?), and Sakura had a hand up to her mouth in worry.

"Well Tazuna-san… if you would be so kind as to tell us why there were two chūnin-level assassins after you we can figure out what to do from here," Kakashi turned an un-smiling eye onto the bridge-builder, "At the moment this mission then passed up the C ranking to at least a B considering the enemy. We have every right to just leave you here and return to Konoha."

The man looked guiltily away without an answer.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura got her teacher's attention, "We're not ready for a mission like this. Let's just go back. Besides, we need to get Naruto to a doctor to take care of his wound."

Naruto looked at her team and client; they were all standing a ways apart from her. _It's always me_, she stared at the back of her hand, _Why is it always me? Why can't I be the one who saves others instead of the one being saved? It's not fair! I spend hours every day training myself and working to prove myself, but no one even notices! It's not fair!_

"This is quite an inconvenience, isn't it," Naruto tore her eyes away from her injured hand to stare at her sensei. He probably didn't mean it in the way she initially interpreted it, but it was the final straw. "We do have to get Naruto's wound treated, let's head back to the village."

Letting the frustrated cry escape her throat Naruto used a kunai to re-open the already closing wound.

"Naruto! What are you doing!" her female teammate shouted in alarm.

_Never again! _she vowed to herself, _I will never be in a situation where I need to be rescued. I'll never be afraid or back down from protecting someone else! I'll beat Sasuke and every other boy!_ "I swear!" she finally voiced out loud, as much to herself as to her teammates, "I will protect you Old Man, I promise on the pain of my left hand! I'm continuing this mission!"

There was an astonished silence at her words.

Kakashi stared at his sensei's daughter, _Minato-sensei, _he thought, _She has your conviction to protect others and Kushina-san's attitude about it. I think you would be proud._ "Naruto," he stated, getting her attention and diffusing the serious atmosphere at the same time, "It's good that you're draining the poisoned blood and all, but any more of that and you just might die of blood-loss."

"AH! Nooooo!" Kakashi only chuckled as she started freaking out.

"Okay, okay, just give me your hand," she held her hand out and he took it tenderly, pulling a roll of bandages out of his field med-kit. _It's already healing._ He thought in amazement as he literally watched the cut on the girl's hand knit itself together. _Could it be the Kyūbi?_

"Am… Am I going to be okay, Kakashi-sensei?" he looked up at Naruto's worried face, "You look serious," she explained.

Kakashi eye-smiled and finished wrapping her hand, "You should be just fine," he stood and ruffled her hair.

"My friend is waiting just up ahead with a boat to get us to Wave," Tazuna said, "I can explain things on the way."

"Let's be off then. I want everyone on their guard at all times. From here on out we are traveling through the unknown," Kakashi explained, kneeling next to the unconscious demon brothers he pricked his thumb and used the blood that swelled up, after a few quick hand signs, to smear the ground. A series of seals appeared on the ground around his hand and a puff of smoke later Pakkun was sitting, awaiting orders, "Yo."

"Pakkun, I need you to head back to Konoha and tell them about these two here. This mission just got a lot more dangerous."

"On it, Boss," Pakkun saluted, eyeing the two assassins for a moment and then taking off back down the trail they'd come from.

"Kakashi-sensei that dog just talked!" Naruto was pointing after Pakkun with a face of unadulterated disbelief.

"Yes," he replied, "That was one of my summon dogs, Pakkun."

"Summon dog?" the blonde tilted her head to the side, trying to remember where she'd heard the term before.

"Dobe," Sasuke (who else would call her that?) turned away with a slight roll of his eyes.

"We learned about Summon Creatures at the Academy, Naruto," Sakura said, a scowl on her face, "I didn't know you had a contract with dogs, sensei."

"We can talk about all this, later," Kakashi waved the questions away, "Right now our priority is to get Tazuna-san back to his village. I need all of you focused on the task at hand. Can you do that?"

"Yes, sensei!" they replied dutifully.

"Good, let's move out."

.!.

They were comfortably seated in the boat that would take them across the stretch of ocean to Wave. Kakashi noticed that the motorized engine was purposely kept off and that they had waited to embark in the thickest mist.

"Tazuna-san," he said, "Explain to us now. Why did you lie about the mission parameters?"

"You were right when you said this was outside the boundaries of your mission. The truth is I'm being targeted by a very dangerous man."

"How dangerous?"

"You've probably heard of him. Gatō."

"Of the Gatō Company?"

Tazuna nodded, "On the surface he's the wealthy owner of the shipping company, but underneath he's really like a mob boss. Dealing drugs, and eliminating his competition from the shadows. He's got a complete monopoly over the shipping in Wave."

"So you're the link," Sakura figured out, Kakashi was proud she was putting her good head to use, "Your bride is a link to new commerce, so he's afraid he'll lose his power."

"So those ninja who attacked were hired by Gatō?" Tazuna nodded to Sasuke's question.

"Wait! What?" Naruto cocked her head to the side and Kakashi shot her a blank look (did she really not follow that conversation at all?).

"Why did you lie? If you had told the truth you could have had a much more capable team at your disposal," he cut off the noises of protest from his team (mostly Naruto) to stare Tazuna down with a humorless gaze.

"I'm sorry. Wave is a poor country. Not even our leaders are very wealthy, so how could a citizen afford the prices of high-ranked mission? It's simply a matter cost, we literally couldn't afford anything higher," Kakashi saw a scheming glint in the old man's eye, "But I understand that it is outside what you were told. I won't blame you if you left as soon as we touched ground. I mean, I'd be dead as soon as you left so you'd only be leaving behind my widowed daughter and her son without their father and grandfather. My poor grandson will never see me again and forever hold a grudge against the ninja of Konoha for letting his Grandpa die. My poor daughter will live out the rest of her life in solitude because she'll be so depressed."

Kakashi sweat-dropped at the melodrama, "Well…"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's voice held a tone that Kakashi had never heard from the blonde before, "I want to keep going," he looked over at her and saw a bright conviction in her eyes, her hands were clenched and shaking.

"Me too," Sasuke supported his teammate.

"Alright, then," Kakashi looked toward the pinkette, "It's up to you, Sakura. We have to all agree to continue here and I'm not going to force you to do something you're not willing to."

"Well…" the girl nervously wrung her fingers for a moment before looking to Sasuke and Naruto. They were both giving her looks of encouragement in their own ways (because Sasuke could never _really_ look 'encouraging' as it were). Her eyes hardened and her hands stilled, "We are Ninja of Konoha, Kakashi-sensei. We'll complete our mission."

The copy-nin eye-smiled at his team, "Alright, Tazuna-san, we'll help you," he turned back to the bridge-builder with a calm expression; he couldn't help but think that there was something he had missed.

They said goodbye to the boat-operator as they made landfall and set off again to Tazuna's village.

After a few minutes of relative silence, Naruto charged ahead on the path, Kakashi noted that she looked a little pale (then again so did Sakura and Sasuke, his little genin had never been on a boat before, after all). He could tell she was scheming something.

"There!" she suddenly shouted, throwing a kunai into the bushes, "Ah… just a mouse."

Kakashi twitched and Sakura started yelling.

"Hey, you shouldn't use kunai so recklessly, Naruto," he stared after her in slight disbelief, "It's dangerous."

"There!" the blonde spun again and launched another kunai at the same moment Kakashi felt a concealed presence vacate the same area, one glance at the white snow rabbit confirmed his suspicion. His senses were on immediate alert; he knew that any new opponents would not be chūnin-level.

"Everyone, get down!" he shouted, sensing the attack before he saw it.

A sword wheeled overhead and stuck hard into a nearby tree. Kakashi placed himself between the new threat and his team (not to mention the client). "Well, well, if it isn't the Mist's missing-nin, Momichi Zabuza-kun."

"If it isn't Sharingan Kakashi," he replied in the same easy voice, "Sorry, but that old man is mine."

He could feel the reactions of his team and client, "Protect Tazuna-san," he had half expected Naruto to step forward to try and fight, but he noticed out of the corner of his newly-revealed sharingan that the blonde was blinking rapidly, as if she couldn't see properly and her cheeks were flushed.

It became clear in that moment: her hands shaking on the boat, her pale face. The poison was still in her system. He had hoped her methods had drained the poisoned blood but apparently it had gotten in quicker than it could be removed. He swore under his breath, "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura!" he barked, "Get back into formation, let me handle this," he was grateful followed his orders without protest (or rather he was thankful that in a half-dazed state Naruto didn't think to do anything contrary to them).

Zabuza turned, "I didn't think I'd see the sharingan so soon. My job is to kill that old man, but I guess I have to go through you, eh, Kakashi?" with that he was gone from the tree.

Kakashi frowned, turning toward the water ahead of them where Zabuza had relocated to. He had to finish this fast; Naruto needed some real medical help.

A quick plan forming in his mind he charged forward, allowing no time for more talk (as Zabuza was about to do). He knew generally how the missing-nin fought based on his bingo-book description, but charging head-on like this was a risky move.

Zabuza barely managed to dodge the sudden incoming shiruken, his eyes widened as Kakashi was already right in front of him with a kunai speeding toward his vulnerable stomach. The sudden charge had disrupted the formation of his mist.

Jumping back out of the way of danger, Zabuza glared at the copy ninja, "A little hasty, are we?"

Kakashi didn't reply. Forming several seals, lightning seemed to appear in the palm of his hand.

"Wh-what?" the exclamation had barely left Zabuza's mouth when Kakashi moved.

Well… not so much 'moved' as 'instantly appeared in Zabuza's face intent on skewering him with his arm'.

With no time to think Zabuza did the only thing he could. The chakra holding his feet on top of the water dissipated and he fell. The Raikiri in Kakashi's hand caught his left shoulder near the neck on the way down into the water, tearing through muscle as it went, only just missing the bones.

A quick counter with Zabuza's large sword with his right hand forced Kakashi to move away and with a little effort he raised himself to the water's surface once more. Zabuza started into the mismatched pair of black and red eyes. There was something pushing this man to beat him, something weighing on his mind to get him to attack so ferociously.

Zabuza glanced quickly back toward his target and noticed something, "Ah… so the little blonde girl in your group didn't come out of the fight with the Demon Brothers without a scratch, hu? And we both know that a scratch is all it takes," he laughed darkly.

Without warning he appeared in front of the three genin and the carpenter. The blonde looked completely out of it but was still valiantly holding a kunai as if it was a lifeline. He smirked and released a fair amount of killing intent, stopping any retaliation from the inexperienced children in front of him and then… he knew no more.

Kakashi stopped (another Raikiri already formed and already at Zabuza's back) as senbon needles appeared from the missing-nin's neck and he slumped to the ground. He let the charged chakra in his hand dissipate. Stepping forward he checked the pulse of the man he had just been fighting. He was dead.

"Thank you for distracting him," a boy in a hunter-nin uniform jumped down from a tree, "I couldn't have taken him down on my own."

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked.

"Don't worry, Sasuke," Kakashi pulled his hitai-ate back down over his sharingan, "he's not an enemy."

The hunter-nin bowed lightly in respect before picking the body of the Demon of the Mist and using a modified shunshin to vanish.

Kakashi was in action immediately afterward, "Naruto," he quickly moved to kneel in front of the girl. Sasuke and Sakura looked over as if they had forgotten she was there (probably due to the ferocious killing-intent they'd just felt, but it still irked Kakashi a little), "Naruto, I need you to look at me."

Her blue eyes were dull and unfocused, "Kaka-sensei," her voice was weak, "What about Bridge-builder-san?"

"Don't worry, he's safe," her level of dedication to the mission when she was so green in the field and in such a state spoke volumes about her potential as a ninja (or rather as a kunoichi).

"Good," her eyes closed and she fell forward, unconscious. Kakashi caught her easily and pulled her into his arms. He nearly stumbled as he stood up again (two Raikiri so quickly together on top of the sharingan was no small drain on his chakra).

"Kakashi-sensei?" surprisingly it was Sasuke's worried (as worried as he could be at any rate) voice that first caught his attention.

"We have to get Naruto somewhere for medical treatment soon. It's the poison from earlier," he explained, "Before then I can't be sure if it'll be okay," The silence was all he needed.

"The village isn't far from here," Tazuna supplied, "We can be there in less than an hour by walking."

"Good. We have to hurry."

* * *

><p>End chapter 2! Oh noes! Naru-chan! It's really not proper medical procedure to bleed out a poison… at least I thought so until a kind anonymous reviewer told me otherwise (for some poisons at any rate). Thank you! Still though, it's always bothered me that Naruto was just fine after that incident in the manga… but hey I guess KyuubiUzimaku resilience, etc. played a part. For those reasons you can bet she'll not be down for long so nothing too dramatic there. :)

Review if you so desire! Tell me about what you thought of the modified Zabuza vs. Kakashi, or about Sasuke's reaction to Naru's poisoning, or about how much you love Pakkun (because I know I do), or about any of the grammar errors I'm sure to have made. But you don't have to. :)

Until next monday!


	4. Land of Wave: Part 2

Chapter 3 is here! :) Afore mentioned Disclaimer, in spite of everything, is still in operation.

Okay here's the deal with the pairings: The final pairings are already decided (mostly, a few are still in flux and may be subject to changing upon suggestion –hint-), but it will not randomly, instantly happen one chapter. Like I said they're a way off for now, but that's not to say there might not be a little romance here and there. Don't be fooled by appearances! I plan on having a few romantic interests and interactions with several different people _for_ several different people (like is prone to happening in real life). So if you hate pairing JoeBob/BillyJoe and see BillyJoe coming on to JoeBob don't give up, fortunately it may or may not stay that way. On the reverse side if you LOVE pairing JoeBob/BillJoe and they start hooking up… unfortunately it may or may not stay that way… so… sorry! Some will like and some will not, but to each their own.

Also a lot of people commented about Zabuza's comment noticing Naruto as a girl. I've explained this at the bottom of the chapter along with a bonus explanation, you can go check it out now if you want, but be warned there are light spoilers for this chapter.

* * *

><p>"<em>We have to get Naruto somewhere for medical treatment soon. It's the poison from earlier," he explained, "Before then I can't be sure if it'll be okay," The silence was all he needed.<em>

"_The village isn't far from here," Tazuna supplied, "We can be there in less than an hour by walking."_

"_Good. We have to hurry."_

.!.

"You're lucky you identified the poison so quickly," the village doctor stood and told Kakashi. They were in one of the bedrooms in Tazuna-san's house (Tazuna's bedroom, to be precise), Naruto was lying still on the bed, no longer flushed from fever or tossing fitfully. Kakashi finally allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief from the chair he was sitting in by the door (luckily the main type of poison used by the Demon Brothers was identified in the Bingo Book he carried). "The chances for lasting damage are slim now that I've administered the antidote," the other man continued, "Quite frankly I'm surprised she wasn't dead already, that poison is known for being a nasty piece of work."

"She's resilient," Kakashi nodded to the man and pulled a few bills out of his pocket to pay him, "Thanks for coming on such short notice."

The man nodded and pocketed the money, "Any friend of Tazuna-san's… as long as it isn't too public, you understand…" he gave Kakashi a pointed look and the jōnin nodded.

"Of course."

"Good," the man pushed the door open, "I don't expect anything to happen, but just in case something changes send someone for me."

"I will," the door closed behind him and Kakashi stood from his chair with far much more effort than it really should have taken him, he was still worn out from the fight with Zabuza (and there was that feeling _again_, prickling the back of his senses that he'd missed something, it was rather frustrating).

Kakashi gently picked up the blonde's left hand, studying the back of it. Both the cut from the fight and the kunai she'd made were gone. All that remained was a small pink line that seemed to be getting lighter by the second. He set her hand back down and moved to place a hand on her head, "Glad you're okay, Naru-chan," he said quietly. He straightened back to his full height.

Time to talk to Sasuke and Sakura.

As soon as he stepped from the stairwell (another feat made not as easy as it should have been by his lack of chakra) he was bombarded by a flash of pink.

"Is Naruto okay!" Sakura was up from the table in a flash to stand in front of him with her hands wringing nervously.

Sasuke had also stood up, but he had restrained himself from running forward. Kakashi could clearly see the worry in both of their eyes. His face softened.

"Sit back down, you guys," he moved to the table and Tsunami-san placed a warm mug of tea down for him. He nodded his thanks, "I take it the Doctor didn't say anything on his way out?"

Sasuke scowled in frustration, Tazuna answered, "He said he would leave it to you."

The bridge builder was sitting at the table as well, just as worried as Kakashi's genin.

"I'll cut right to the chase then," Kakashi took a quick sip of tea through his mask, the warm liquid slid down his throat easily and seemed to give him a little energy, "Naruto's going to be just fine."

"Thank goodness," Sakura placed a calming hand over her heart. Sasuke nodded, relief visible in his eyes, and Tazuna slumped in his seat, reassured.

"Luckily we caught it and got her attention quickly after we got here," Kakashi continued, "It's a fairly common variety of poison so the doctor was able to make the antidote right away. She's sleeping peacefully now, and hopefully she'll be fully recovered in a few days." There was a silence around the table for a while as the three people stared at him with varying degrees of disbelief, "What?"

"_She_?" Sakura asked, "I thought we were talking about Naruto?"

"Eh?" Kakashi's visible eye widened. He hadn't even realized! He must be more out of it than he thought, "Did I say 'she'?" he covered quickly, "I meant 'he'. The fight with Zabuza took more out of me than I let on. My Raikiri takes up a lot of chakra and using it on top of the Sharingan is a huge drain on my reserves. Just standing up right now takes a lot out of me." Sakura started looking worried again, but Sasuke's eyes stayed suspicious, "I'll be fine after a good night's sleep," he concluded.

"Let me pull you out a bed roll, Sensei," Tsunami offered.

"Thanks," Kakashi nodded again, taking another sip of his tea, "This tea is magnificent, by the way."

"Thank you. I'll go set up the roll in my Father's room so you can keep an eye on Naruto-san when you wake as well," Kakashi nodded at her thoughtfulness.

When she had grabbed the sleeping material, Tsunami motioned for Kakashi to follow her. This time when he stood up (the adrenaline of worrying for one of his cute students finally starting to slow) he really did stumble, Sakura and Sasuke were both at his side instantly, keeping him from falling back down, "Thanks, you two," he eye-smiled at them and graciously accepted the support they offered. He saw the suspicion leave Sasuke's eyes as the young genin witnessed the proof of his mentioned weakness.

Kakashi wouldn't remember much else that night except for the fact that he was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.

.!.

Sakura scanned the ground again. She didn't know much about the herbs that Tsumani-san had sent her to find; hopefully this new area would prove more profitable than the last. Spotting a plant that looked somewhat like the one Tsunami-san had described she reached for it.

"Are you planning on poisoning someone?" a light, humorous voice made her jump and spin around.

"What?" She looked around and her eyes caught sight of the most beautiful boy she'd ever seen. _What! _her inner Sakura screamed, _That's so not fair! He's even prettier than me!_

"I asked if you were planning on poisoning someone," the boy repeated with a lithe smile.

"N-not that I… know of...?" she looked on wordlessly for an explanation.

"Well, judging by your basket I'd assume that you're collecting herbs?" he asked, Sakura nodded, "Well that plant you were about to pick up is a rather potent poison when crushed."

"Aww!" Sakura bowed her head in defeat, "I don't know much about the plants around here," she sighed, "Tsunami-san sent me out to find something for her tea."

"I would suggest this one," the boy was still smiling as he pointed to a plant to her left. He gave her the name and Sakura recognized it as the one Tsunami-san wanted.

"Oh! Thank you! I'm Sakura, by the way."

"… Haku," he replied, "It's nice to meet you, Sakura-san, but I'm on my own herb collection journey and it's rather urgent that I return quickly," he pointed to his own empty basket, "Have a nice day."

"You too! Thank you for your help, Haku-san!" Sakura grinned as she picked the plant she needed. Now that she had one she could find more a whole lot easier.

The boy smiled before walking away again, leaving Sakura to her hunting.

.!.

"Tsunami-san, I'm back!" Sakura called as she entered the home.

"Oh good, Sakura-chan!" the older woman met her at the door, "Come with me and I'll show you how to prepare this."

Sakura and Tsunami talked easily for the next few minutes, "What will this help with, Tsunami-san?"

Tsunami looked up from her bowl, "This is a special medicinal mix that helps stimulate the mind. I thought it would be appropriate for your teammates as you don't have to drink it to get some of the effects."

"Really?"

"Yes, we'll set a bowl up in their room and the aroma will do some to help, then when they wake up they can have a glass."

"Wow! That's amazing Tsunami-san!" Sakura looked on in wonder at the green-tinted clear liquid in the bowl. She never knew there was anything that could have that effect; it made her want to learn more about medicine. She hated feeling as helpless as she did right now with Kakashi-sensei and Naruto out of action, learning medicine could help her feel less useless on her team.

OH! Then maybe… she could go with Sasuke-kun and when he got hurt she could… and _that_… with _him_… EEK!

Inner Sakura started rambling rambunctiously about the triumph of true love and Sakura decided that she would in fact take up medicine as a light blush rose up her cheeks.

"Sakura-san? Are you feeling alright?" Tsunami appeared in her face with a worried look.

She nodded quickly (too quickly), "Of course, Tsunami-san. Sorry, I just spaced out for a moment."

Inner Sakura was still cackling.

.!.

Kakashi jumped from his sleeping position to sitting straight up in an instant, "Zabuza!"

He _knew _there was something he had been missing in that whole situation!

"Kakashi-sensei?" he turned, startled at the sudden voice. Naruto was sitting cross-legged on the bed, looking entirely as if she hadn't been poisoned the day before.

"Naruto?"

She grinned at him and let her legs swing off the edge of the bed, "How are you feeling, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi smiled amusedly at her, "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

Her grin faded a little as she looked at him with an expression that seemed to be a mix of wonder, puzzlement and gratitude, "Thanks, Kakashi-sensei."

He blinked at the intensity of her statement, "What…?"

Her voice was quiet and her bright bangs, no longer held back by her hitai-ate (as it was resting on the bedside table), shadowed her eyes, "I… it's just that… no one's ever…" she paused and took a breath, gathering her thoughts, "Sakura-chan told me what you did for me, carrying me all the way here and getting a doctor. No one's ever cared enough about me to do that when I was sick." Her blue eyes once again lifted to face him with that serious expression settled on her face once more, "So… Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi's eyes widened as he suddenly understood the Third's words: _She looked so much like Minato in that moment…_ It was as if a silhouette of his former teacher sat behind her on the bed in that singular moment. Then it was gone and the girl suddenly turned away, pink rising in her cheeks.

"You're one of my precious students, Naru-chan," Kakashi explained, letting a real smile settle over his features. She looked up, shocked at his words (also by the use of her true name, because as far as she remembered she had never told him), "I care very much for all my precious people."

Naruto smiled back at him, about to say something else, when the door opened.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura stepped into the room, followed by Sasuke, "You're awake!"

"Ah," he agreed, wondering what was in the bowl that Sasuke was carrying and why it smelled so good.

"I told you he'd be fine, Naruto," Sakura shot over to the bed.

"I just wanted to be sure!" Naruto said back just as quickly, hiding the rising blush on her cheeks by turning away in a huff.

"We couldn't get him out of the room until you woke up, Sensei," Sasuke said uncharacteristically with a pointed expression in Kakashi's direction, "He's got a lot of energy for someone just recovering from a poisoning." It was a statement that seemed to double as an almost threatening question with the way Sasuke was looking at him.

The silver-haired jōnin waved it away easily, not really bothered at all because he had faced much worse before (Pakkun when he was particularly intent to get an extra treat, for example), "Anyway, it's a good thing you're all here, because I realized something when I woke up." They all turned to him, curious. "Do you remember the hunter-nin who came in and killed Zabuza?" Sasuke and Sakura nodded while Naruto looked slightly confused (not entirely her fault, Kakashi reasoned, she'd been completely out of it by that point), "The usual procedure for a hunter-nin is to dispose of the body right away, because all they really need for proof-of-kill is the head and they don't want anything to fall into enemy hands."

Sasuke's eyes widened at his implication, "No!"

Kakashi nodded solemnly, "Zabuza's still alive and that hunter-nin was probably an accomplice who stepped in to save him at the last moment."

"What… what do we do, Kakashi-sensei?" the pinkette was nervously wringing her hands again.

"They'll be back, so when they come back we'll need to be ready. I'm going to help you guys train for a few days and then we'll take turns guarding Tazuna-san at the bridge."

"Whoa! Wait!" Naruto finally burst out, "I don't understand! _What's_ going on?" Kakashi could only laugh at the way her nose crinkled up in confusion and her eyebrows knitted together as she tried to work out exactly what they were talking about, she got angry at his chuckles, "It's not funny, Kakashi-sensei!" which only seemed to add to the hilarity.

Eventually they were all laughing, even Sasuke was smiling (smiling, not smirking!). Kakashi composed himself easily and moved to slowly rise from the bed roll he was on, "Let's get going then, you all need to get training."

"First both of you have to drink some of this," Kakashi blinked at the mother-hen tone that suddenly inhabited Sakura's voice and he did little to protest the delicious-smelling drink that she handed him. It was from the bowl that Sasuke had been carrying, he realized.

He and Naruto shared a look, missed by the other two, before drinking what they had been offered, "Can we go now, Sakura?" he teased lightly.

Sakura nodded, not at all flustered like Kakashi assumed his words would make her, he smiled at that.

"Good then. I think I'm going to teach you guys how to climb trees… without your hands."

With that last parting note he slipped from the room and left his little genin in shock as the door closed behind him. He had completely expected the exclamation of astonishment that followed. His smile only widened when they stormed out of the door after him calling for him to slow down.

.!.

Naruto snuggled closer to her jacket. She had taken it off during training in the heat of the day and was now using it as a makeshift pillow.

A small bout of laughter woke her fully from her exhaustion-educed sleep, "Eh? What's going on?" She sat up, on alert to her surroundings. The laughter was back again and she followed the sound, "Eh? Nee-san, why are you laughing?"

The girl in front of her was very pretty, even prettier than Sakura-chan (who Naruto considered to be very pretty, unlike herself), and she only seemed to laugh harder at Naruto's question.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, "You just looked so cute all curled up with your jacket. It reminded me of a cat or something."

Naruto pouted and crossed her arms.

"What's a little girl like you doing out here all alone, anyway?"

"I'm training!" Naruto declared, excited, "And I'm not little, I'm twelve!"

"Training? For what?"

"I'm a ninja! Believe it!"

"Wouldn't that be a Kunoichi?" The older girl was puzzled.

Naruto shook her head, "When I have my jacket on I look like a boy," she explained with a shrug, looking down to her snug, sleeveless black shirt, "So a lot of people think I'm one. I let them."

The older girl stopped for a moment, "Really? You're so cute though, how could anyone mistake you for a boy?"

The blonde didn't reply as several haunting phrases passed though her head: _"Demon brat!", "Monster!", _and _"Dead last."_ So it startled her when the girl knelt down next to her and spoke again.

"Probably for the same reason that people mistake me for a girl."

"Eh?"

"I'm a boy," the older girl, now boy, revealed with an easy smile.

"WHAT!" Naruto gasped out, "I'm sorry!" she scrambled to apologize but the beautiful boy only waved it off.

"Don't worry about it, I'm used to it. No doubt in the same way you are," when Naruto had the nerve to finally look him in the eye again she saw a kindred spirit.

"You let them believe because no one cares enough to look closer," she voiced.

"Exactly," the boy smiled sadly and put a hand on her head (she wondered briefly what it was about her head that seemed to draw people's hands to it), "But I've found someone very precious to me. So I've become strong for them and it doesn't hurt so much anymore."

"I have precious people too," Naruto replied with a bright smile, thinking of the recent talk she had with Kakashi-sensei, "That's why I'm training so hard. I can protect them if I train hard."

"That's good. When a person has someone they want to protect… that's when they become truly strong," the boy smiled gently at her, "It was wonderful to talk to you, Imouto-chan, but my precious person is waiting for me to get back with some medicine."

"Thanks, Nii-san," Naruto replied, correcting her earlier mistake.

"Haku," the boy said as he stood, "My name's Haku."

She didn't know what possessed her, but she gave her real name in answer, "Naru."

With one last parting smile Haku left the clearing and Naruto was once again alone. She grinned and pulled her jacket on with renewed strength to continue practicing.

.!.

"Honestly, Naruto!" Sakura scolded, "You just recovered from being poisoned!"

Naruto laughed weakly, "Sorry Sakura-chan."

"Keh," Sasuke smirked, "Dobe."

"Say that again, jerk!" Naruto turned her head to glare at her male teammate, she was currently being supported by both of them having once again worked on her tree-walking to the point of collapse.

"Dobe," he replied deliberately, his smirk growing into something akin to a smile.

"ARGH! That's it!" her struggling, all geared toward the sole purpose of attacking Sasuke, nearly caused her teammates to drop her. She wisely decided to stop.

"Naruto… what did you do?" Kakashi sighed from the doorway, he was carrying some firewood for Tsunami-san (they didn't want to be freeloaders after all).

"He worked himself to the point of exhaustion," Sakura explained in a huff.

Naruto smiled weakly, embarrassed, "Sorry, Kakashi-sensei."

"Hmm… Well let's get some dinner and then let you get to bed. You'll need some rest tonight since we're heading to the bridge tomorrow to start full-time protection detail."

They made their way inside and to the table, Sakura and Sasuke set their teammate down without causing her undue pain, "Thanks Sasuke, Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled at her brightly, and surprisingly it was Sasuke who spoke with a slightly subdued customary smirk, "You're welcome, Dobe." Naruto grinned.

So did Kakashi. He studied the way his genin acted around each other; it had changed subtly since Naruto had been poisoned. Sakura and Sasuke seemed to be more protective over the blonde and watched more carefully to the things she was doing. Maybe that situation had been exactly what they needed for that extra push toward real teamwork.

"Inari!" Tsunami said toward the door. They turned; sure enough the young boy was back again. Kakashi saw Sasuke's face darken and Sakura's smile turn decidedly fake. Their interactions with the boy the day before had not been exactly… pleasant. Naruto just looked on curiously.

"Who're you?" she asked blutly.

Kakashi nearly sweat-dropped.

"Oh! Naruto-san I forgot you hadn't met him yet," Tsunami explained, "This is my son, Inari."

Naruto grinned, "Nice to meet'cha, Inari-kun!"

The boy turned his nose up and away, "You're pretty cheerful for someone who's going to die."

Kakashi noted that all three genin tensed at the words. As Tsunami started to scold her son, Sasuke and Sakura were ready to spring into action in defense of their teammate. But they needn't have worried.

Faster than almost anyone could see, all Naruto's smiles had been replaced with a glare and she had a knuckle dug into the boy's head, "What was that, brat?" Inari winced and tried to escape her, but to no avail. Naruto continued, "Is that how you thank the heroes who came to save you and your village?"

Kakashi did sweat-drop at that one.

Inari replied heatedly, "What are you! Stupid? There's no such thing as a hero! I already told your stupid friends that they're no match for Gatō, neither are you! You're all gonna die just like everyone else who tried to oppose him in this village!"

To Naruto's credit, she did notice the tensing of her teammate's postures, her knuckle dug in harder. She was honestly furious at the brat. "That's what a hero is, Stupid Brat!" she replied, his struggling stopped and he looked up, confused. Naruto elaborated, "A true Hero is someone willing to die for what they believe in, someone who willing sacrifices themselves for their friends and never gives up. Kakashi-sensei taught us that, so don't you dare say that anyone who's died in defense of your village isn't a hero! They died to save your life and to keep the dream of your freedom alive!" Inari was looking up at her in something akin to shock. Kakashi noticed the extremely personal note that Naruto's voice took on when she spoke about what made a hero (also he was glad that _something_ he'd taught had gotten through to her).

"Wh-what?" the little boy was close to tears.

"A true hero," Kakashi said, startling several other occupants in the room, "Is someone who stands up for what they believe in no matter the odds that they're facing. They stand up even when they know it could very well cause their death. A true hero, Inari-kun, is someone like your Father," the boy looked over at him with wide, water-filled eyes, "And even though you've had a hard life there are true heroes who rise from that hardship to stand just as tall as the people before them instead of wallowing in it. I think that's what Naruto was trying to say."

It was Naruto's turn to freeze as the little boy burst into loud tears; "Eh?" her eyes were wide and pleading for any form of help from her team. They did nothing, quite enjoying her flustered look.

"Inari," Tsunami bent down, tears also in the corners of her eyes, and pulled her son into a tight embrace.

Naruto stumbled back to her seat, she was still fighting exhaustion and now that her momentary adrenaline rush was over it was back tenfold. Kakashi reached over and put a hand on her head, fluffing her hair up some more, "Good job, Naruto."

"What'd I do?" she asked, honestly bewildered, "He ticked me off by insulting my hero! I was trying to teach him a lesson."

Tsunami and Tazuna carried a crying Inari from the room and left the team alone for a few minutes.

"He insulted _your_ hero, Naruto?" Sakura asked, voicing the question that all three of them had.

She nodded, "Yeah. The Fourth Hokage," understanding filled Kakashi's eye.

"How did he insult the Fourth?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! He was talking about Gatō!" Sakura added, eager (as ever) to align her voice opinions with Sasuke's.

"Sakura, Sasuke," Kakashi supplied when Naruto looked away, he could tell she was slightly embarrassed, "How did the Fourth die?"

Ever the scholar, Sakura answered, "He died protecting the village from the Kyūbi," Kakashi was able to keep from wincing, but noticed Naruto was unable to do so. Kakashi raised his eyebrow at Sakura, to get her to continue thinking about the statement she'd just made, she did so and suddenly it dawned on her.

"Exactly," Kakashi nodded, "He went into battle with the Kyūbi knowing he was going to his death. But he went anyway, because he also knew that it would save the village and his loved ones. That act alone made him one of the most beloved heroes Konoha has ever known. We are all here because people like The Fourth gave their lives for the dreams of our village and we fight to preserve their legacies."

There was a contemplative silence as all four ninja thought about the words that had been shared in the past few minutes and the people they all represented.

"Where did the brat's Dad come into it?" Naruto suddenly asked (she, of course, hadn't been there the night that the subject had come up). Her team could only bang their head on the table in frustration, or whatever equivalent gesture they each deemed appropriate.

* * *

><p>End chapter 3! Woo woo! :D Hahaha! Random foreshadowing for the rest of the story! ;) I'm sure you can all guess where they are too! Cyber-cookies to those who point them out!<p>

Okay: Explanation on Zabuza's comment in the last chapter about Kakashi's "little blonde girl". As it was kinda' pointed out in the chapter, no, Sasuke and Sakura didn't hear D: (Fear not, they will eventually find out (cough-very-soon-cough)). I did it as a subtle (perhaps _too_ subtle) indication that Zabuza knows what he's doing and isn't biased enough to miss the truth about Naruto (he is a ninja and wouldn't have ever gotten this far without looking underneath the underneath, after all). Other characters notice right away as well: such as Haku (he is one smart and talented cookie, that boy) and Sakura notices Haku's a boy without his mask at once. I've always believed Sakura to be very smart and observant (even if I don't like her very much (cough-at-all-cough)), but she's grown up hearing the prejudices against Naruto so even her observant mind doesn't pick up on the fact that Naruto is 'hiding in plain sight' as it were… also she's so obsessed with Sasuke that it literally becomes a disability for her. Well… there's my slightly long-winded explanation on some of the 'why' behind what I do. And a little minor Sakura-bashing (because it would not be good to do it in the actual story as: just because I don't like her doesn't mean everyone else feels the same way. Never fear, she shall not be bashed in chapter, same with every other character I don't like... except for maybe Danzo... but he deserves it.)

SO! Without further ado: Tell me your thoughts on the subject! Or you can feel free to mention where you believed me to have foreshadowed to win a cyber-cookie, or tell me about what you thought of Kakashi and Naru's heart-to-heart, or Sasuke's concern, or feel free to guess on how Naru's gender is going to be revealed sometime in the near future (who knows, I may just use some of the ideas), or maybe that you want to see more of Pakkun (because I know_ I_ do). Or you don't have to. It's your choice! I'm really only writing for my personal enjoyment anyhow.

Until Monday!


	5. Land of Wave: Part 3

Chapter 4 be here! Disclaimer, of course, still applies. And just so you're all aware, I changed the prologue, you don't have to go back and read it because the only thing I did was delete half of it. There was really no point to most of it, so I left what was important and deleted the rest.

Holy crap there has been such a huge response! Over 7,587 hits! Thank you everyone for all your reviews (36) and favorites (80) and alerts (149)! I'm glad you're all enjoying it!

This time a bunch of fight-scene-actiony-goodness abounds! :) Also: deets1 is awarded a cybercookie! XD And for everyone wondering. No. This is not going to be a Kakashi/fem!Naru fic. But if you're looking for a good one check out RayneXHatake's _Wake Me Up Inside, _it's amazing!

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><p>"<em>He went into battle with the Ky<em>_ū__bi knowing he was going to his death. But he went anyway, because he also knew that it would save the village and his loved ones. That act alone made him one of the most beloved heroes Konoha has ever known. We are all here because people like The Fourth gave their lives for the dreams of our village and we fight to preserve their legacies."_

_There was a contemplative silence as all four ninja thought about the words that had been shared in the past few minutes and the people they all represented._

"_Where did the brat's Dad come into it?" Naruto suddenly asked. Her team could only bang their head on the table in frustration, or whatever equivalent gesture they each deemed appropriate._

.!.

Naruto curled in closer to the blanket, muttering softly, grumpily wondering who had ripped her away from her peaceful dream.

"KYAA!"

_Hmmm, that sounded like Tsunami-san screaming,_ thought Naruto in her sleep-induced haze, _I_ _wonder what's wrong._

"MOM!" that was the little boy who'd ticked her off the night before.

…

…

…

Wait.

Naruto shot out of bed, suddenly fully awake, without pausing to grab anything she was out the door and down the stairs.

"Inari! No! Run! Get away from here!" Tsunami-san was screaming again as Naruto stormed to the kitchen.

"You two get away from my mom!" Inari yelled.

She entered the room to see Inari standing tall in the corner, Tsunami-san in another corner with two thugs cornering her.

"What do you think you're doing, idiots?" She shouted at them before they could go after Inari, "This house is under protection by ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village!" Striking a 'cool' pose she pointed to her forehead protector.

They stared blankly at her, then the thug on the right burst out laughing, "And we're supposed to believe a little girl like you is a ninja?" The other thug joined in.

It was then that Naruto realized she wasn't wearing her jacket so her tight black shirt revealed her true gender. Also she had forgotten her hitai-ate on the bedside table, so she was pointing to her bare forehead for (apparently) no reason.

No wonder the thugs were laughing at her.

Now she was angry and embarrassed, never a good thing for a laughing (thus distracted) thug.

Two clones that she had summoned outside of the house quickly jumped in through the massive hole in the wall and viciously kicked both thugs over the head. They fell hard to the floor of the kitchen.

Tsunami-san stood up shakily, "Naruto-san… Thank you," she said sincerely.

Hiding her blush Naruto threw her a thumbs-up, "It's what a hero does," then something dawned on her, "Wait… where's Kakashi-sensei? Or Sasuke? Or Sakura-chan?"

"They went to the bride this morning," Inari supplied, wiping his tears away.

"WHAT?" Naruto groaned, "They left me here without waking me up!"

"I'm very glad they did!" Tsunami almost snapped, before composing herself once more.

Naruto stopped, _Oh, it was a good thing that they did that. Oops._ "Sorry, Tsunami-san," her clones were tying the thugs up, "I have to go help my team now, if they attacked here they could be at the bridge already."

Racing back up the stairs she grabbed her jacket, hitai-ate, and her weapons pouch before once again running to the kitchen.

"Naruto-nee-san!" Inari called after her as she ran, she turned, surprised at the form of address, "Thanks! I believe that you're a real hero! I'm gonna be one too!" he wiped angrily at the tears that were forming in his eyes, "And I'm not gonna' cry anymore so I can be strong just like my dad!"

She tilted her head, "I think you're already are a hero for standing up to those people who were going to hurt your mom and it's okay for heroes to cry when you're happy," she replied easily with a wink, "And my real name's Naru," with that she was gone. Inari kept wiping at the tears that just wouldn't seem to stop.

"Okay, Naru-nee-chan," he said to himself, "It's time to stop being a crybaby and do something that I believe in!"

.!.

As Naruto raced toward the bridge she let her mind wander, _That's three people in less than a week who now know my real name. Maybe it's time to give up the act…_ As she ran she realized suddenly that it was much easier to use her chakra to go faster and make the transition to leaping through the trees. All her training was really paying off!

The distinct sound of battle on the bridge reached her ears after a few minutes. Her team was in trouble! She pushed her legs to carry her a little bit faster.

The sight that met her was nearly too much for her to stand. Sasuke stood alone in the center of what appeared to be large mirrors made of ice and a masked ninja, a hunter-nin (at least that's what she remembered Kakashi-sensei call them), was coming out of one of the mirrors ready to hurt him. The metallic tang of blood flared to life in her nostrils and she realized that he must have already been hurt. The anger gave her strength as she launched herself into the battle.

She created several Kage Bunshin that bore down on the house of mirrors before anyone was the wiser. One of them managed to catch the hunter-nin in the side of the face with a fist. He fell out of the mirror and to the ground with a thud.

"HA!" She called from the end of the bridge, "Uzumaki Naruto has arrived! And now that I'm here you're all going down!" She stood up straight with her arms crossed and a smug smile on her face.

She noticed the blank looks she was receiving from her teammates and wondered what they could be for.

_Idiot!_ thought Sasuke.

_What kind of ninja rushes in and announces their presence like that!_ Kakashi stared, visible eye twitching slightly.

In a quick moment the hunter-nin had released a barrage of senbon needles and all of Naruto's surrounding clones disappeared at the same time that Zabuza attacked the real Naruto with several shiruken.

Those too were shot down by the same senbon, "Haku…" Zabuza growled in warning. Naruto thought that the name sounded familiar, but couldn't place it.

"Please let me handle this my way, Zabuza-sama."

"Keh," Zabuza turned to face Kakashi once more, eager for his own fight, "Do what you want, you softie."

Naruto took the time the bad guys were using for conversation to sneak into the mirror circle, "Hey Sasuke! I came to save you!"

"You moron!" Sasuke howled back, "Don't you ever think! Why did you come _inside_ the mirrors? Now we're both trapped in here!"

_Oh… crap,_ Naruto blinked, only just realizing the drawback of her perfect plan, and sputtered incoherently for a moment. _Still_, her mind reasoned, _two against one are better odds_, "I come to save you and this is what I get!"

"Shut up!" Sasuke glared back, "I don't care anymore, you idiot!"

Then the hunter-nin was in the mirror before them. No more time for useless conversation.

Naruto and Sasuke were both on alert, ideas and plans running through their heads at full speed.

Naruto wasn't quite sure what happened, but the next thing she knew the hunter-nin was everywhere at once and she and Sasuke were being attacked from all sides. She heard Sasuke swear under his breath.

She brought to life a dozen-or-so clones, "If the attack is from all directions then I'll just attack all directions!"

"No!" she heard Sasuke say, but too late, they were once again under vicious assault and her clones had been destroyed in an instant.

When Kakashi started talking about bloodlines even Naruto knew their situation was grim.

"I don't care!" she boldly declared, earning the shocked glance from both Sasuke and the hunter-nin (his body language _seemed_ surprised at any rate), "I'm not going to die here because I have a dream to fulfill! I'm gonna be Hokage and protect everyone precious to me! I don't care who stands in my way! Believe it!"

"Unfortunately, I cannot let you leave here," the hunter-nin said calmly, "I have a dream too, you see. My dream is to stay by the side of my precious person protecting him and doing his will. His will is to kill you here, so in order to fulfill my dreams yours must be sacrificed. Please don't hold it against me."

Without warning another attack of senbon was on them as suddenly a thick mist developed around them.

"It ends here for you," the masked boy's image appeared in all the mirrors, "I'm sorry," and in that statement Naruto felt a familiarity that she couldn't place, but soon the thought was driven out of her mind as another attack was upon them.

"I have a plan," Sasuke whispered from her side, "but I need some time."

"You got it," she replied, resolve lighting her blue eyes as they whipped from mirror to mirror.

.!.

"Hatake Kakashi," Zabuza finally moved to place his full attention on his desired opponent.

"Momichi Zabuza," Kakashi replied in kind, "I'm sorry, but I'll have to end this instantly," the wheeling Sharingan was revealed.

Before Kakashi could move Zabuza had charged forward with an attack of his own, _quite the feat,_ Kakashi marveled as he was forced to use his own hand to block the attack. He was grateful for the thick gloves he wore for protection at that moment.

"Afraid of the Sharingan, Zabuza?" Kakashi said calmly, "You're lucky you get to see it twice, no one else has had the same opportunity."

Zabuza laughed, "Well then, I'll just keep that little privilege for myself and not let anyone else see it ever again!" he jumped back and made a sign. His chakra called the mist to his aid, filling the air so completely it was impossible to see more than several feet in any direction, "In our previous fight Haku was watching your every move. It appears that eye of yours gives you increased visual awareness and reaction time. So what if you couldn't see what was attacking you?" harsh laughter seemed to sound from all around Kakashi.

He realized that the bloody dagger Zabuza had gotten in his hand could come in handy in this situation (_pun completely intended, _his mind laughed wryly), "Is that so, Zabuza?" he asked, not letting any of the apprehension he felt filter through his voice. He sounded like he really didn't care what Zabuza had supposedly planned, like nothing the man threw at him would ever faze him.

It achieved the desired effect and the laughter stopped, shiruken appeared at the corner of his vision and it was only his reflex reactions honed from years in the service of ANBU that kept them from hitting his person.

"Good reactions for dodging those, Sharingan Kakashi," Zabuza melted out of the mist from the direction of the shiruken, his eyes were closed, "But this confirms my suspicions. You rely too heavily on the reaction that your Sharingan eye provides for you," his eyes opened and seemed to glow threateningly through the mists that swirled around him once more, "That will be your downfall."

Without anything to see, Kakashi closed his own right eye. He concentrated on his surroundings, not letting the worry from the sounds of Naruto and Sasuke's battle distract him. He could hear Sakura and Tazuna shifting nervously from the unfinished end of the bridge.

It was the slightest of sounds, one he wouldn't have caught had he not been specifically focused on finding it: the slight shuffle of shoe over concrete, added to the fact that the missing-nin's original mission was to assassinate the architect, the quick smell of his own blood confirmed his theory. He moved.

He used a kunai to block the blade and once it was stationary he used his still bleeding right hand to hold it there, "So predictable," he said to Zabuza. The man seemed shocked to see him and he heard both Sakura and Tazuna scrambling to keep their feet behind him.

"How did you-?"

"You seem to forget some of the many reasons why they put me in the books, Zabuza," Kakashi replied lightly.

"Ah," Zabuza's eyes narrowed, then a wicked grin split his face, "But I'm the master of Silent Killing," once more he leapt away into the mists, "It will be the last thing you never hear."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the bad pun, "Keep protecting Tazuna-san, Sakura," he said needlessly, she nodded resolutely behind him and Kakashi also moved forward into the thick veil before them.

.!.

"Why won't you stay down?" the boy in the mirrors said almost angrily as Naruto and Sasuke once again got back on their feet after another attack.

"Heh," Sasuke coughed in to his hand, "As if someone like you could ever keep us down."

"Believe it!" Naruto added next to him, her hands braced on her knees as she grimaced in pain, "You're just a coward who fights behind mirrors and doesn't come out to face us in a fair fight!"

The masked boy said nothing, but his image once more appeared on the surface of all the mirrors.

Sasuke and Naruto moved quickly to stand back-to-back, "You got it yet, Jerk?" she asked quietly.

"Almost," he replied, just as quiet, his eyes franticly scanning the room of mirrors, "I can almost read his movements."

"Well, hurry up!" Naruto replied, both to Sasuke and to their opponent.

"As you wish," and the two genin were under fire once again. Naruto let her instincts take over as she dodged fatal blows from the speeding senbon.

"There you are," she heard Sasuke say triumphantly and she turned to see his eyes had turned a bright red color, the same as Kakashi-sensei's. She didn't have time to react before Sasuke had jumped and seemed to grab their opponent from thin air as he made a hop between mirrors.

Naruto stared in disbelief as Sasuke punched him to the ground.

"You saw through my movements," the boy gasped in disbelief, Sasuke only smirked. The atmosphere darkened, "Not good enough."

Naruto caught Sasuke roughly after the other boy had punched him under the jaw. She looked down at her teammate; the blow had knocked him out (hopefully only momentarily). Gently she set him down, careful of the senbon that were stuck in him, and turned to face the boy. She lowered herself into a fighting stance.

"And what does the little girl think she can do against me alone?" the masked nin's voice wasn't mocking, but it wasn't gentle either.

Naruto's eyes widened at the knowledge of her gender, "How did you…?"

"We're alike, you and I," the boy's hand moved up near his mask, two senbon needles held between his fingers, "and yet we are different in one important detail. Though I do not want to kill you, I can harden my heart for the sake of my precious person."

She watched the streaks of silver as they headed for her throat, unable to move—

With a solid 'thwump' she had been pulled to the ground, turning she saw Sasuke next to her. She cursed at herself, she had been unable to move in the face of danger again just like the fight with the Demon Brothers and Sasuke had saved her… again.

"We've gotta work together here," Sasuke said by her side, distracting her from her thoughts, "I can't have you dying on me."

Her blue eyes met his red, swirling Sharingan and a message was passed between them. She nodded thanks; he nodded back before turning to their opponent again.

"I cannot let you live, for the sake of my precious person."

"You've said that already," Sasuke drawled, bringing a hand to his still sore jaw, "and yet here we are," he smirked when their enemy stepped back into the mirrors, "It's useless. I can read your movements now." Having learned his lesson the last time Sasuke didn't follow him to the ground and instead he opted to simply punch the boy out of the air, straight to Naruto's waiting fist.

With a mighty, chakra-infused blow (courtesy the training they'd received the last couple days) Naruto's fist met the side of the boy's masked face.

.!.

The sound of shattering glass, or rather ice, echoed over the bridge. Kakashi and Zabuza, who were once again locked with their blades crossed, turned toward the sound in the thinning mist (they had both used some rather draining jutsu in the last few minutes so Zabuza's mist was beginning to dissipate).

"Looks like the inescapable bloodline has been escaped by… what did you call them? Oh yes: 'the scrap that follow me around'." Kakashi remarked. Zabuza glared, pulling away.

"Time to end this."

"I agree," Kakashi nodded, they both prepared for a final attack.

.!.

"Y-you!" Naruto pointed to the boy (revealed as Haku after his mask had shattered), "Why are you…? I thought…"

"You know him?" Sasuke asked, keeping a wary eye out in case he tried anything.

"We… we met in the woods the other day when I went out to train by myself," Naruto explained, "We talked, but… I thought we were the same!" she called to Haku, "I thought you were like me!"

"I am, Naru," Haku replied with a sad smile, Sasuke's eyes narrowed at Naruto's shortened name, "But my dream takes me down a different path than the one an innocent girl like you and your friends walk. I'm sorry."

Had it not been for Sasuke's quick reaction, Naruto would have been speared by Haku's signature senbon again. He pushed her out of the way and stepping into the path of the senbon as he did.

"Sasuke!" she shouted, following the impulse reaction to turn around and grab him to take him to the ground with her after his tackle. It worked, but not well enough. When they both landed on the ground Naruto spoke, "Why do you keep saving me!" okay, she yelled.

Sasuke coughed weakly, "Tch. I don't know. Maybe all of Kakashi's talk on teamwork is going to my head or something, my body just moved on its own. Heh. I had a dream to kill my brother, the one who murdered my clan… don't you die here too, Naruto… Dobe," Sasuke's breathing slowed and his eyes closed.

Naruto saw red.

Haku resigned himself to his fate as he sensed the volatile chakra, he was of no more use to Zabuza at this point: he was tiring and these children just seemed to pull out more energy every time he knocked them down, "Yes. I've killed your friend and now you must kill me," his eyes widened when the attack stopped inches before it reached him and the killer-intent lessened.

"Why," Naruto looked up at the nice boy she'd met the other day with tears in her eyes, "Why did you do it?"

Haku smiled sadly, but made no move to counter her impending strike, "Because my precious person saved me when everyone else feared me," he proceeded to tell her of his past and the role that Zabuza (less cruel and heartless than he made himself out to be) played in it, "So please, Naru-chan… Imouto-chan, do what you must." Haku prepared himself, _Zabuza-sama has no need for a weak tool. Weak I must be if these children can break my ultimate jutsu and still have such strength to pursue me. _"I'm sure that if we'd met under different circumstances we could have been the best of friends."

Naruto's blue eyes closed tightly and she nodded, pulling a kunai from her pack, "Okay, Haku-nii."

"Thank you," following an impulse he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

Naruto looked up, shocked, and gazed into his resigned expression for a long moment. She steeled her resolve, tightening her grip on the knife, before moving forward swiftly.

Only to be stopped.

Haku easily deflected the strike, sensing something in the distance, "Sorry, Naru-chan." With that he vanished from her sight.

A cough from behind her made her spin around, "Sasuke!" she refused to let the tears that had gathered in her eyes fall (that moisture was only the fog condensing on her cheeks, honest). Haku hadn't killed him (Naruto _knew_ he was a good guy!), "I thought… I thought you were…!"

"Why…" her teammate groaned, trying to sit up. She rushed to help him, "First the ramen lady, then Kakashi, now this enemy. Why is everyone talking to you as if you were a girl?" he asked with a blank glare (as only he could pull off).

"Because I am a girl, Jerk."

Whether it was due to the blood-loss, or the senbon stuck in specific nerve endings for too long, or perhaps the shock of finding out that the Dead Last of the academy had fooled everyone into believing she was a boy for who knows how long: Sasuke fainted.

Later he would deny any and all accusations of this event ever occurring.

.!.

Kakashi's eyes widened (and he could feel the surprise from his surrounding summon dogs as they dispersed) when his Raikiri cut through the young hunter-nin and not Zabuza.

"Wha-," Kakashi held steady as the boy, even with an arm through his heart, reached up to take hold of his limb, as if to hold him in place.

"Z-Zabuza-sama…"

"Haku-nii!" Kakashi turned to see Naruto running over, her eyes were red as if she had been crying, she stopped in shock at the sight before her, "Haku-nii..."

Kakashi mentally berated her for making friends with the enemy, but the look of horror and despair on Naruto's face at that moment would make him forever keep those thoughts to himself. He swore and turned back to the boy being supported by his arm, he couldn't get distracted right now.

The mist had vanished, as if something had disrupted the focus of the caster of the jutsu (_no doubt it had_, Kakashi reasoned) and he could hear Sakura's and Tazuna's gasps of shock at the sight of the battle, "Haku-san!" Apparently Sakura knew the boy as well, this was (in the words of the Nara Clan) troublesome.

_He's already dead, _Kakashi thought, staring into the lifeless eyes of the boy, Haku according to his girls.

"Heh," Zabuza spoke as if his ally hadn't just died in front of him, "Your death threats were wrong again, Kakashi. I sure picked up a useful tool to give me a chance like this!"

Kakashi didn't quite make it out of the way fast enough (hampered by the weight of Haku on his arm), Zabuza's large blade caught his side and he more stumbled to the ground instead of easily crouching.

He could hear Naruto running up and he could sense that she was angry, "Naruto!" he barked, earning her attention, "Stay there," he let some of the anger he was feeling seep into his words, "This is my fight."

"Yeah, little girl," Zabuza mocked, smirking, "Let your 'leader' handle this. But don't worry; I'll come after you next."

Naruto didn't back down from his predatory glare, even going as far as to glare right back and open her mouth to say something.

Then Kakashi was moving and Zabuza was forced to block his ferocious attacks after taking a hard kick to the stomach.

"Naruto!" Naruto turned to see Sakura, "You're okay! Where's Sasuke?"

Naruto looked away and pointed. Sakura assumed the worst.

She heard Sakura rushing behind her as she turned to face Kakashi's battle. It gave her no small satisfaction that the missing-nin couldn't even land one hit on her teacher. He deserved it after the way he'd treated Haku.

Turning back to the fallen boy she'd met in the woods her thoughts drifted to the promises she'd made and the dreams she had. _I promise, Haku-nii._ She closed her eyes and clenched her fists in a silent prayer to the unknown, _I promise that I'll fight and work and train and become strong for the sake of my precious people,_ Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke (even if he is a Jerk), Hokage-ojii, Teuchi-ojii-san, Ayame-chan, Iruka-sensei, Asuma-ojii… Haku-nii, _I won't let them down and I'll keep my promises to them._

"Don't you understand yet?" her sensei's cold, calm voice broke her thoughts; he was standing threateningly behind the missing-nin with a restraining hand on his head. His left arm was hanging limp with fresh blood spilling from the wound on his shoulder that he'd received in his previous encounter with Kakashi's Raikiri, "You can't beat me in your current state."

"Hehe," a gleeful voice from the edge of the bridge made everyone turn, "You've failed me Zabuza. Looks like I won't have to pay you after all… not like I was going to anyway."

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><p><strong>The deal with the pairings (expanded from last chapter)<strong>: The final pairings are already decided… mostly. A few are still in flux and some may be subject to changing upon suggestion (hint). So basically everyone but Naru's pairing is subject to change (to varying degrees, as I like some over others). If you really like a certain pairing, tell me! I'll see what I can do with it and if enough people tell me about it then it may change. :)

Like I said they're a way off for now, but that's not to say there might not be a little romance here and there, but don't be fooled by appearances! I plan on having a few romantic interests and interactions with several different people _for_ several different people (like is prone to happening in real life). So if you hate pairing JoeBob/BillyJoe and see BillyJoe coming on to JoeBob don't give up, fortunately it may or may not stay that way. On the reverse side if you LOVE pairing JoeBob/BillJoe and they start hooking up… unfortunately it may or may not stay that way… so… sorry! Some will like and some will not, but to each their own.

**Keeping Haku and Zabuza alive**: That would be fairly awesome. But as much as I love them (you have no idea how excited I was to see them in recent chapters again! And then once again sad to see them dead… again.) I believe their words and subsequent deaths had a very big impact on the members of Team 7, particularly Naruto. I think this is where his/her nindō really solidified in his/her mind because of the influence of the two enemies who weren't really enemies after all. So I would love to keep them around, but one: their deaths help Naruto in the long run and two: I would have no clue what to do with them if I did (adorable misadventures or not, sorry Neko-Renku!)… There's really no logical way to get them accepted to Konoha given their history (Zabuza's particularly). So that's my explanation.

So feel free to tell me about the outrage you feel on the subject or perhaps the sorrowful acceptance! Or maybe the battle scenes you enjoyed, or possibly about the fact that there was no Pakkun (Not really anyway D8). Or you can tell me what you thought about Sasuke finally figuring out (cough-being straight-up-told-outright-cough) that Naruto's a girl and his reaction and guessing Sakura's reaction to the news. But you don't have to. :D

Until Monday!


	6. Land of Wave: Part 4 End

Chapter 5! Calculating… calculating… calculating… disclaim complete. The characters and places of this story are still not my intellectual property as disclaimed by the disclaimer which is still in place.

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><p>"<em>Don't you understand yet?" Kakashi said in a cold, calm voice; he was standing threateningly behind the missing-nin with a restraining hand on his head. His left arm was hanging limp with fresh blood spilling from the wound on his shoulder that he'd received in his previous encounter with Kakashi's Raikiri, "You can't beat me in your current state."<em>

"_Hehe," a gleeful voice from the edge of the bridge made everyone turn, "You've failed me Zabuza. Looks like I won't have to pay you after all… not like I was going to anyway."_

They all looked to the source of the voice. The man was on the larger side and wore a creepy grin that had the self-assurance behind it of someone in a position of power.

"Gatō," Zabuza said, his voice even and seeming to not notice the threatening presence of Kakashi behind him anymore, "Is there a particular reason you're here?"

The merchant smirked, "I've said already, You've failed me and I've come to clean up your mess."

"I see," Zabuza's voice took on an almost conversational note, "Well, Kakashi, I have no more reason to go after the architect."

"Ah," Kakashi agreed, he removed his hand from Zabuza's head, "Our fight is over."

Naruto stared confusedly; she didn't quite understand what was going on (having never understood the whole Gatō situation in the first place).

She understood perfectly, however, when the fat merchant kicked Haku's body. Anger welled up inside of her, nearly akin to the anger she felt when she thought Sasuke was dead.

"What do you think you're doing!"

Kakashi sighed to himself and almost casually snagged the back of his student's jacket as she ran by, "Stay out of this Naruto."

"Yeah kid," Zabuza agreed, not even looking at her, "This isn't your fight anymore."

Naruto, still held in Kakashi strong grip, started struggling, "The heck it isn't! He's disrespecting someone I care about!" she screamed, "And I don't care what Kakashi-sensei says: you're still my enemy too!" some of the thugs behind Gatō snickered at her, but she ignored them easily, "He, Haku-nii, loved you! He respected you and gave his life to protect you! You saved him from pain of being alone and took him in and he lived his life just to serve you!" her vision clouded with tears once more, but she had to continue, "And when he's gone you treat him like the dirt beneath your feet. That makes you my enemy."

"Shut up, kid," Naruto looked up through her tears and was shocked to see tears on the missing-nin's own cheeks, "I already know all that."

When Kakashi was sure his student wasn't planning on attacking the demon of the mist or rushing away to attack Gatō anymore he released the hold on her jacket.

"Kakashi," he looked over with his mismatched gaze to meet the emotional gaze of his previous opponent.

"I got it," he told Zabuza. The missing-nin nodded and they both prepped themselves for another fight, this time as a team.

Zabuza's gaze turned feral as he let his chakra swirl around him. Naruto could've sworn she saw a demon's shape surrounding the man, but couldn't be sure. Kakashi stood tall and pulled out several kunai.

All the thugs and Gatō took several steps back at this powerful new team. Gatō then hid among his minions, "Kill them!"

In a mad rush, where many of the hired hands really had no idea what was going on, both sides charged.

Naruto watched with a somewhat morbid fascination as her teacher and a missing-nin tore through men as easily as if they were both out for a light jog. The hired hands started to get the idea that they were being attacked and started to return the favor. Kakashi backed out of the fray, instinctively moving to attack from a better position than right in the middle of the opposing army.

Zabuza had no such sense of self-preservation and ran into the skirmish with a reckless abandon, taking no regards for his own life as he killed the men responsible for Haku's death (Kakashi was merely the tool they had used to accomplish it). With a final move he used his massive blade and tore Gatō into two equally messy pieces.

Naruto finally found the strength to turn away as the remaining army bore down on him, but when she did Kakashi's voice stopped her (he was once again by her side), "Don't look away," he said softly, understanding her feelings as he remembered his own experience with his first kills, "It's the end of a man who died fighting for what he believed in."

She bit her lip and looked back at the scene, "Yeah," she agreed softly.

Zabuza, having finished the task he'd set for himself, no longer fought with the same ferocity and the numbers of his enemies soon overpowered him in his already weakened state.

"Back off!" a new voice entered the fray over the noise, "This is our village!"

"Yeah!"

"We won't let you boss us around anymore!"

"Inari!" Naruto called in greeting, but her attempt at cheerful didn't quite reach her voice, she could hear Tazuna in the background calling out a greeting as well.

"You all lost us our meal ticket!" one of the highered hands stepped forward, kicking Zabuza's prone body as he went, "We'll kill you!"

But no one was really intimidated by their threats anymore: the villagers all stood their ground, holding steadfastly to their makeshift weapons, and it had only served to anger Naruto. Just when she was about to cast her Taiju Kage Bunshin, Kakashi placed a hand on her arm, "It's okay now, Naruto."

Four masked ninja and black cloaks appeared in front of them, silencing the still-threatening ragtag ruffians and the villagers alike.

With almost palpable relief Kakashi spoke, "What took you guys so long?"

"Kakashi-sempai," one knelt down in front of Kakashi and Naruto and she suddenly recognized them as Konoha ANBU, "We apologize for the delay. The chūnin who intercepted Pakkun-san's message was not… timely in his delivery."

"On what grounds?" Kakashi queried crisply, getting instantly serious. Naruto was amazed that her sensei was on the same level (or even higher, judging from the form of address he'd received) than the ANBU.

"Classified. He has been detained and given the same treatment as others for disobeying the law."

_So it was because Naruto was on this team,_ Kakashi thought with a frown. That was not the answer he was hoping to receive, but the one he expected, "Carry on."

The masked man nodded, "Sempai."

Naruto's attention returned to the hired thugs before her. She jumped to see that they were all either running away, unconscious, or tied up already.

ANBU were _good_.

"What about Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, focusing Naruto's attention again.

"He's just unconscious over there," Naruto replied, her voice sad, and Kakashi could sense a guilt weighing on her mind. He'd have to talk to his whole team about this later, the first kill (even if it was not your own) was always the hardest.

"Good, I was worried."

"Kakashi," they both turned at the sound of Zabuza's weak voice. Kakashi stood and re-covered his Sharingan as he did, "I want to see his face."

"Of course," using the last of his strength Kakashi lifted the man that, in a different life, he could have been friends with.

Naruto sat close by, watching Zabuza's last interaction with his apprentice, "You'll see him again," she said matter-of-factly, "I know you will."

"Heh," Kakashi was amazed to see the effect that the words had on the hardened nin as he spoke to his student, "Thanks kid… you're really something, you know that?" Zabuza's hand rested on Haku's face and his hazy eyes drifted to meet Naruto's, "I see in you the same things I saw in Haku, you'll do great things, little girl."

"The name's Naru," she replied.

"Ah… Naru…" Zabuza closed his eyes and didn't open them again.

.!.

A week and a half later Naruto sat on the porch of Tazuna's house with her chin resting on her arms that were wrapped around her knees. She was so deep in thought that she didn't even notice Kakashi sit down at her side.

"Naruto," his voice startled her into awareness and she blinked up at him, "We're going to bury Zabuza and Haku now and I need to have a good talk with all three of you."

She nodded, not trusting her voice, and allowed her sensei to pull her to her feet.

Kakashi, though all his wounds had been healed by the ANBU, was still walking with the assistance of a make-shift cane (it was mostly a precaution at this point as he had used up so much chakra at the bridge that he'd been out a whole day afterward). But they made good time with some of the villagers carrying the bodies of the fallen nin (the ANBU team had taken off that morning to bring in a preliminary report to the Hokage).

Once they were at the site the villagers bowed low in respect and left the ninja to their own devices.

They dug two shallow holes and the Kakashi nodded to Sasuke. The genin and teacher blew two identical fire jutsu as the same time to burn the bodies as they were still ninja and their bodies held many secrets. Kakashi had talked it over with the ANBU and decided that with their tentative treaty with the Land of Water and the Land of Waves shouldn't be put under any forms of duress by simply leaving the bodies to be found. The proof of their deaths (i.e. their heads) would be sent in the scrolls Kakashi had sealed them in to Kirigakure.

Kakashi took his team aside (upwind of the funeral pyre) and set them down. A solemnity fell over them that Kakashi hadn't wanted his team to experience for a while yet.

"This is the life of a ninja," he told them plainly, "we live and we fight… and we die."

"Is it always this hard, sensei?" Sakura asked, and Kakashi could see the tears brimming in her eyes, "Does if ever get any better?"

"I'm not going to lie to you guys," Kakashi took a deep breath and closed his eyes momentarily, "It'll get worse," at the startled, sharp glances he elaborated, "This was the first time for you guys to have really witnessed death like this," he spoke to Sakura and Naruto as he knew what Sasuke had experienced with his clan, "and it's always painful to witness someone die, enemy or not, to see another's life taken in front of you touches your own humanity in agonizing ways," he now focused on all three of them, making sure Saskue got the message as well, "But taking that life with your own hands is another matter entirely. Every time you kill a piece of yourself is killed as well. As ninja this is something we all have to face eventually. We all have to have something that keeps us grounded in reality or we kill ourselves in the process of carrying out our missions."

"What… what keeps you grounded, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"There was a long time when I was younger that I didn't have anything," he answered honestly, "Looking back now makes me cringe at the person I was becoming. It took one of my very close friend's death to make me realize and from then on my motivation was that I would protect my comrades no matter what the cost. That, Naruto, is what keeps me grounded," there was a thoughtful silence, broken only by the crackling flames behind them, "Ninja are supposed to be emotionless tools for killing, but we must each find our own reason to fight so we don't actually become that emotionless tool. It is a hard life to lead and a difficult balancing act. So I want you all to think seriously about your futures in the service of the village, not just now but continually for the rest of your careers. There's no shame in admitting that you can't handle things like this and I would rather you guys quit as ninja than find yourself in a battle and get killed because you can't commit to the actions that need to be taken."

He let them think and none of them spoke after that. After a while the fires were dying down, so they wordlessly buried the remaining ashes with the dirt they had removed before and placed wooden grave markers.

His kids were all quiet as they went to bed that night.

.!.

On their way out of Wave a few days later they stopped by the grave markers once more. They placed flowers, offered food and Kakashi drove Zabuza's large cleaver into the ground behind the cross.

"Are ninja's really supposed to be emotionless tools, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, her voice was quiet in contemplation (something Kakashi thought he'd never hear from the loud blonde).

"It's true that as ninja we aren't supposed to pursue our own goals. We become tools for our nation when we wear the headband," he answered honestly.

"Do you really believe that?" Sasuke looked over, earning a glance from both Sakura (unsurprising, really) and Naruto.

He avoided directly answering the question, "Like I told you guys a few nights ago, there are issues that every ninja has to deal with. This is just another one of them."

"I don't like it," Sakura frowned, turning back to the graves, "Even though I've read it over and over again in the textbooks… actually experiencing it… I don't like it."

"Neither do I," Naruto agreed, Kakashi watched as a bright spark, one he hadn't seen since the fight on the bridge, lit her blue eyes with determination, "I just decided! I'm gonna' be my own ninja, in my own way!"

She earned shocked looks from all three members of her team. After a moment Kakashi smiled, "I'm sure you will, Naruto. I'm sure you will." And he was; if anyone could break the twisted system, it would be her.

.!.

"We still need a name for this bridge," Tazuna and a small group of villagers stood in the middle of the large expanse of architecture, Inari was still crying from the emotional departure from his new-found sister.

"What about that kid?" one of his workers suggested.

"Yeah… that boy. He changes Inari's heart and in turn he changed the heart of the whole village. He built us a bridge of courage that led to our own hope and strength to stand up for ourselves. I think 'The Great Naruto Bridge' will do nicely as a name."

"Father," Tsunami sighed, "Naruto-san is a girl. And her true name is Naru."

There was silence for a moment.

"What do you mean he's a girl!"

.!.

"What do you mean you're a girl!" Sakura shouted, eyes wide and finger pointing at the blonde.

"Exactly what she said," Sasuke glared at the level of shrillness in Sakura's voice.

"What… but… he… you… I…" Sakura's eye twitched, "But you…" she paused, realized what Sasuke had said, then turned on her male teammate, "You _knew_, Sasuke-kun? You knew and you didn't_ tell_ me?"

"Now, now, Sakura," Kakashi broke in, protecting his only other male teammate from the female's wrath, "He only found out at the bridge a while ago." He didn't miss the slight reddening of the boy's cheeks. They both must feel rather foolish for not realizing sooner.

"And you!" Kakashi used every ounce of his ANBU training and experience to not give in to the urge to hide under a large rock from the pinkette's suddenly-incurred wrath, "You knew all along, didn't you, Kakashi-sensei!"

He smiled (which actually turned out to be more of a grimace), "Well… yes."

"You didn't think we'd need to know that one of our teammates was a girl?" it was rather impressive how she was using a modified Big-head no Jutsu (© Umino Iruka) without hand seals, "You were protecting the secret the whole time too! All those times you called her a boy! Or those times when you-!"

"Calm down, Sakura-chan!" Naruto grabbed the girl's arm, "It's not that big of deal. Kakashi-sensei only wanted to see how long it would take for you guys to see underneath the underneath. It was training. Plus it wasn't like we were going to extreme measures. Kakashi-sensei would drop hints in training all the time."

That gave Sakura pause. Come to think about it, Kakashi had actually dropped hints that were really rather obvious now that she knew the truth: all the times during training when he'd mention something odd (for a boy) about Naruto's behavior ("Now, now Sakura. Naruto has a very nurturing personality; you know he grows a lot of different kind of flowers in his apartment?") or little instances where he mentioned a womanly trait and then immediately switched topics to Naruto ("I hear that girls pick this particular training method faster than boys. Why don't we start with you, Naruto?"), or that one time when he'd been exhausted a few weeks ago and called her a 'her' ("Hopefully she'll be fully recovered in a few days").

The smartest kunoichi of her class felt stupid. Those thoughts calmed her down and she looked at Naruto, really looked at hi…her for the first time. The way her blue eyes were shaded by long eyelashes or the gentle curves of her face (still a bit round from baby fat), and the way her shiny golden locks fell gently around her head.

How could she have ever mistaken Naruto for a boy?

"Naruto…" she said, her voice quiet now, "I… I'm sorry I never noticed before."

Naruto cocked her head to the side before grinning, "It's okay, Sakura-chan. No one else does either. Honestly I don't know why Kakashi-sensei had me do it, only four people have ever figured it out without me telling them before."

The way she said it nearly made Sakura's heart break. She couldn't ever imagine going through life with people always mistaking her for a boy… what must that do for a girl's self-image?

Then a horrifying thought struck her, "You're not planning on going after Sasuke-kun after this are you!"

Naruto recoiled from the statement in disgust, "EW! NO! Who would ever want to date that Jerk!"

Kakashi noticed in amusement the way that a twitch developed above Sasuke's eye at the statement.

Sakura was about to pursue her line of incriminating questioning when an even _more_ horrifying thought struck her, "Are you gay?"

There was silence on the path for a good few seconds, then: "What are even talking about!" Naruto screamed back, affronted and yelling for the first time in the conversation.

Kakashi and Sasuke both eye-twitched, but listened interestedly to the explanation from both sides; they were both, after all, hot-blooded males (albeit one more perverted than the other).

"All through the academy you would ask me out on dates!" both boys stared and listened even more intently, Sasuke (having remembered the events) was now very curious.

"Just to get to know you!" Naruto shouted back, her face going red (whether from embarrassment or exertion they wasn't sure), "I thought you were cool and I'd never had a friend who was girl before!"

Sakura stopped and lowered her voice, "You… you thought I was cool?"

Naruto did the same, her face getting even redder, "Still do," she muttered, "and pretty."

Kakashi and Sasuke shuddered at the stars that appeared in the pinkette's eyes, "Really?"

Naruto turned away in a huff, "I already said yes! Let's just keep going!" and she took off down the path in a brisk walk with her nose in the air and a pink blush still covering her face.

"Naruto wait up!" Sakura called, running after her.

"Sensei," Sasuke said after a moment, eye twitching.

"Yes, Sasuke?" Kakashi answered, a large sweatdrop working its way down the back of his head.

"Girls are weird."

"Ah," he agreed. They stood motionless for a while before deciding that the girls were far enough ahead to not be an immediate threat any longer and started at a slow walk following after them.

* * *

><p><strong>And now for a rant:<strong> Holy crap it has always _bugged_ me (with a fiery burning passion) that Kakashi (a _professional_ at his job) goes out on a mission with a bunch of _genin_ and then finds out he's going to be facing _jōnin_-level enemies (basically _alone_) and he_ doesn't call _for_ any _form of backup, or even send word that the_ mission parameters_ have _changed_? Uh… _what_? So I made up an explanation. That's what fanfic is for, right? Okay. Rant over. XD

**New policy: Voting! **I have decided to open the voting polls in a contest. Vote for your favorite shipps (Everyone's game so that does include Naru/Haku even though Haku is dead in the story) and the ones with the most votes will win a one-shot debut in the near future. You can also vote down a pairing you don't want to see and that pairing will receive a negative vote (anyone's game, including Naru/Kakashi which had already been shot down in the story). You may vote (up or down) for however many shipps you want in a review, but only one vote per ship will be counted per review. So if you want to vote again you'll have to review again. As I said the winner of the poll will earn a one-shot for that pairing (maybe the top two if I'm feeling nice), but the one with the lowest votes will also receive a special one-shot (as to what kind will remain secret XD). Also it doesn't just include pairings with Naru, if you really like Tenten/Neji go ahead and vote for them. Or if you really dislike Tsunade/Jiraiya go ahead and vote against them! (I'll have several different categories so the non-naru shipps will also have a chance to win, or lose ;D) Now go! Go and vote to your heart's content!

Voting will close ten chapters from now (the Monday I post chapter 15 will be the official deadline as posting chapter 5 is the official start (deadline subject to change)) winners will be tallied and released with the posting of chapter 16 and soon thereafter the one-shots will be released.

So review with questions you have about a plot-hole I may have missed, or Sakura's reaction to Naruto's revelation or who you think will find out next and how, or to point out grammar mistakes or story mistakes, or how awesome Pakkun is (… hm.. can you tell I like Pakkun? XD), or that you want to see more of _your_ favorite character (because not everyone loves Pakkun as much as I do, sadly), or you can continue trying to sell me to your favorite shipps so I can keep a running tally and reward the ship with the most votes. But you don't have to… after all I'm only writing for my own entertainment, it just happens to be a very positive side note that so many of you like it too. :D

Until Monday!


	7. Arc Change Fun

Chapter 6!

Congrats to Yami-No-HikariBre for being the 100th reviewer! You get a special one-shot crossover that's up now! Go check it out everyone! It's called _Believe it!_ and it's a Naruto/Pokemon crossover. XD

* * *

><p>"<em>Sensei," Sasuke said after a moment, eye twitching.<em>

"_Yes, Sasuke?" Kakashi answered, a large sweatdrop working its way down the back of his head._

"_Girls are weird."_

"_Ah," he agreed. They stood motionless for a while before deciding that the girls were far enough ahead to not be an immediate threat any longer and started at a slow walk following after them._

.!.

Naruto sighed for the nth time that morning: her team had been avoiding her ever since they got back from Wave yesterday. She hoped they would go back to normal soon. Finding out she was a girl couldn't have been that much of a shock… right? With a frown she stopped and looked around.

She saw Shino and Shikamaru sitting in the grass next to the path with a Go board between them.

"Hey Shino! Shikamaru!" They both looked up and Shikamaru lifted a lazy hand in greeting.

"Yo, Naruto."

"Naruto-san," Shino inclined his head lightly as his cool, smooth voice carried without him having to raise it.

"What'cha guys doing?" she asked as she hopped the railing on path and wandered over to join them.

"Playing Go," Shikamaru answered, "It's troublesome, but our teams are both out doing other things today."

"Why Go?" she asked, staring at the board with a raised eyebrow, she'd never see the draw behind the boring game, "It's boring," she voice aloud.

"Go is an intellectual game that helps develop strategy and tactics in the minds of those who play," Shino answered in his unique way of speaking, "Shikamaru is quite adept, I have not yet taken a victory from him and doubt that I could without rather intense practice in the game... and perhaps an increase in IQ."

"Eh? You're really that good, Shikamaru? Shino's one of the smartest kids from our class!" Naruto grinned at them, "My team kinda' ditched me today too, you guys wanna' teach me how to play?"

Shikamaru smirked lazily at her feigned enthusiasm to learn the game, "heh, troublesome."

Shino inclined his head, "If you would like, Naruto-san, I can explain the moves as we make them while we finish this game."

"Sure, Shino, that would be cool," she sat down, cross-legged, at the side of the board and listened as the two boys both explained the game to her while they played.

After only a half-hour Shino bowed respectfully, "I resign, well played, Shikamaru."

"It's troublesome, but you almost had me here," Shikamaru pointed to the lower-right corner of the board, "I had to think hard about how to get out of that one. You've gotten better just today, Shino. It might be getting too troublesome to play you anymore."

"Thank you for the compliment," Shino inclined his head, "Would you like to try your hand, Naruto-san?"

"Eh, why not?" she grinned and Shikamaru lazily switched her places, "Just don't expect too much."

"Let us reduce the playing space. That will make it considerably easier," deftly the bug-user pulled out several blank seal sheets from his pouch and outlined a 9x9 area with them.

Shikamaru snickered from the side when Naru lost without gaining any territory on the small board only a few minutes later as Shino pocketed the seal papers once again.

"Hey!" Naruto glared, "If that's so funny why don't you try playing me and Shino at the same time!"

Shikamaru smirked, "heh, that won't be troublesome at all," he quipped.

"Bring it on!" Naruto yelled back, pumping her fist energetically, "We can take him, Shino!" but Shino's expression was unreadable behind his glasses and large collar.

Halfway through the game Shikamaru was starting to sweat. How… how was Naruto making all these moves? Shino would play several moves and then, seemingly at random, Naruto would pick up a stone and place it before Shino could. The first time it happened had baffled the two boys, but soon they grew used to it.

Shino had pretty much resigned himself to a loss and was only playing to try and make up for the territory that Naruto's rather awkward stones had lost.

Halfway through the game he suddenly realized that he and Naruto were controlling more than half the board and they were gaining momentum. Shikamaru seemed to be realizing the same thing. They both turned to stare at the blonde.

She didn't notice and was still focused at the board intently.

"Naruto," Shikamaru broke the silence, "Were you holding out on us when you played Shino?"

Blinking (as her mind-numbing concentration had been broken) she looked up, "Eh? What do you mean?"

"I mean your strategy here," the Nara gestured to the half-played game, "is way better than your last try and, as troublesome as it is to admit, it's even better than mine."

Naruto blinked some more, "I'm just randomly placing a stone every five or six moves to make some random shapes that I see. I don't even understand what's going on," she also gestured (a bit more wildly than Shikamaru) to the board and pointed to her first move, "This one made a triangle with these two stones here, and this one made a hexagon with these other ones, and this one made a rectangle, and this one…"

Both boys stared open-mouthed at her continued explanations; her moves did indeed make up shapes where she had placed the stones, but… but…

How could _anyone_ be that lucky?

Unless she was lying…

They watched her face scrunch up in thought as she tried to remember another shape she'd made.

… no.

"Heh," Shikamaru interrupted, "If I ever go to buy a lottery ticket remind me to take you."

"Eh?" Naruto cocked her head to the side, bewildered, "Why?"

"You seem to posses and extraordinary amount of luck," Shino explained, "As of right now, we control more than half the board and Shikamaru is in hardly any position to reposes any of his lost territory thanks to your… shapes."

"It'd be way to troublesome to try any more, I don't want to think that hard today, I resign," Shikamaru didn't even bother turning before he flopped backwards onto his back to stare at the clouds.

"HAH! We did it Shino! Told ya' we could take you, Shikamaru!"

In spite of himself Shikamaru grinned at her enthusiasm. He wouldn't tell her (_him_, in Shikamaru's mind as he didn't yet know) that since he'd stopped the game he'd thought of twenty different moves to counter and start a comeback to ensure his eventual victory.

"It was… enjoyable to play with you, Naruto-san," Shino nodded to the girl.

"Thanks Shino! I hope I didn't mess up your game too bad, heehee," she brought a hand behind her head to scratch her neck embarrassedly, "It was actually really fun to play with you too!"

Shino didn't reply, Shikamaru looked over to see a pink blush barely visible over the bug-user's collar. He filled the information away so he could mull over it at a different time.

"Oi! There you are Shikamaru!" Asuma, Ino, and Chōji were on the path that Naruto had been on earlier.

"We told you to meet us for practice an hour ago you lazy-butt!" Ino yelled, pumping a fist in the air. He stared at them (upside down, as he was lying in the grass) and let out a lazy sigh.

"Oh yeah."

"What do mean '_oh yeah_'? Don't act so calm! You've caused us all sorts of trouble!"

"Calm down you troublesome woman, I just got caught up in a game."

"Oh," Asuma was suddenly next to them ("GAH! Asuma-oji! Don't _do_ that!"), studying the board, "Who played black?"

"Me and Shino did, Asuma-oji!" Naruto grinned wildly.

Asuma stared at her for a moment, then back at the board, then back at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, and then he completely dismissed her to look at Shino, "Good game, Shino, not many people can push Shikamaru into a corner like that, I've never even gotten that far."

"Asuma-oji! I wasn't lying!"

"Naruto-san is indeed telling the truth," Shino backed her up calmly, "We played a two-on-one match against Shikamaru, Asuma-sensei."

Asuma raised his eyebrow again.

"They're telling the truth, I'll tell you about it later, Asuma-sensei… troublesome," Shikamaru sighed before groaning with the effort it took to get to his feet. He brushed his backside off, dislodging a stubborn pieces of grass that seemed to be calling him back down to cloud-watch some more, but he deftly ignored their cries and slouched over to his genin teammates.

"They really pushed you that far in Go?" Chōji asked.

"Yeah."

"Wow," Ino looked back to the blonde, who was currently trying in vain to attack Asuma for some random comment he'd made, "Naruto's better than I thought."

"He's really not," Shikamaru replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Heh," both his teammates blinked at the smirk that lifted the corners of his mouth, "Let's just say that if I ever take up gambling, I'm bringing Naruto."

"What?" Ino stared, deadpan, at him, "Pft, whatever," then in an undertone, "_Boys_."

Shikamaru turned to watch the exchange between his sensei and his friend, they were just parting and Asuma patted Naruto's head and grinned, something he'd only ever seen the man do with Ino. With him and Chōji it was always a pat on the back or shoulder.

Something else to add to the mystery that surrounded Naruto. He catalogued the scene into a growing list of evidences that were (so far) proving to lead to a completely ridiculous conclusion. He rolled his eyes and turned away, no time for that now.

… troublesome.

.!.

"Sakura-chan!" Sakura didn't turn at the sound of her name and instead started to walk a little faster, "Sakura-chan, wait up!"

When she could no longer pretend she didn't hear her name she stopped (reluctantly) and turned to face the only person who called her Sakura-'chan', "What do you want, Naruto?" she asked with a little more bite than she intended.

She noticed that Naruto's shoulders tensed and then hi-_her_ smile brightened tenfold, to an almost blinding level, "I just wanted to know what you were doing, but you seem busy, so I'll leave you alone," then Sakura noticed that Naruto's blue eyes hadn't brightened with the rest of her face, she was finding herself more in-tune to small details like that ever since the secret had been revealed (she figured she was paranoid that she'd miss something else that Naruto was hiding).

"No… wait… I-I'm sorry, Naruto," she couldn't stand that hurt look in her teammate's eyes, she'd felt it herself when Ino had declared them rivals, "What did you want?"

This time Sakura noted (with relief that she would later deny) the blonde's eyes did brighten with her smile, "Oh! I was wondering, since we had the day off, if you wanted to go on a date with me?" she paused and thought about her words before stuttering, "I mean- not a date-date, but like a girl-date… uh! I mean not like go _out_ on a date, but like- well... I mean… just… you know, as friends?" her face flared bright red.

Sakura couldn't help but giggle, "I know what you mean, Naruto, but I've gotta' go run errands for my mom right now."

Naruto was still red, "Okay. So you've been helping your mom ever since we got back from Wave?" Sakura nodded, "Oh, that's good. I thought you were avoiding me."

Sakura was about to reply, then she stopped and thought about the last couple days. She hadn't been helping her mother every single day, and she had purposely been avoiding the most likely places to run into Naruto (namely a three-block radius around Ichiraku).

She sighed, "I'm sorry, Naruto… this is just… a lot to take in right now."

Naruto's face fell, "You _were_ avoiding me?"

"I-," Sakura could almost see the defeat filter into the blue eyes before her, "Yeah…"

Naruto turned away, "Okay… I get it. Maybe some other time, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura couldn't take it anymore, "I can't take it anymore!" her sudden outburst startled Naruto.

"Wha-?"

"I can't be sure that you're not after Sasuke-kun like every other girl I've ever known!"

"What do you mean? I…"

"During the Academy? What if that was all an act just to get Sasuke to notice you? You got to take all the boy classes every day with him while all the girls were sent off to kunoichi training classes! You did all those-!"

"Sakura!" the sound of her name without the usual suffix made her pause. She looked to her teammate (and potential rival), "I'm still the same person I was in the academy. Just because you didn't know I was a girl doesn't mean I didn't. I honestly hated his guts because I could never beat him. It wasn't an act and I _still_ don't like him, but I have to put up with him now because he's on my team."

Sakura blinked dumbly at Naruto for a moment: that had been one of the most articulate things she'd ever heard the blonde say. It made her think.

Naruto had seemed genuine back at the academy and _just because _I_ didn't know she was a girl doesn't mean _she_ didn't know._

Sakura felt stupid again, "So you're not after Sasuke-kun," it was no longer a question.

"Like I said before," the loud-mouth idiot was back again, "Who would ever want to date that Jerk?"

Sakura couldn't help it: "You mean like a date-date, or like a friend-date?"

"Friends with that Jerk?" Naruto replied vehemently in a disbelieving yell, "I wouldn't date him either way!"

Sasuke (up in the tree next to the path the girls were talking on) breathed a small sigh of relief. He had honestly not known whether or not he'd have been able to survive _two_ rabid fan-girls on his team. Naruto's words had him thinking about all their confrontations in the Academy and her genuine dislike of him. Frankly, it was rather refreshing to know that a girl actually _dis_liked him. He smirked to himself and realized that things really wouldn't change much on their team even now that he and Sakura knew Naruto's not-quite-secret.

He jumped down and startled the two girls, "Kakashi wants us to meet at Ichiraku's to discuss something," he said quickly before just as quickly disappearing back into the trees.

Just because he had to meet with them there didn't mean he had to walk with them too.

.!.

"Okay," Kakashi said to his team, "We need to talk."

"About what, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked through the ramen in her mouth.

"First: don't talk with your mouth full, Naruto," Kakashi replied nonchalantly.

She swallowed, "Sorry Sensei."

"That's okay, just try to remember it," he replied easily, "and second: now that you two know about Naruto's little secret," he addressed Sasuke and Sakura, "what are we going to do about it?"

"What do you mean, Sensei?"

"Well, now that you guys know and have received your lessons on looking underneath the underneath, do you want to let everyone else know you're a girl, Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged and swallowed before she spoke, "I don't really care," she looked thoughtfully at the ceiling, "I don't really want to go around just saying, 'hey everyone, guess what? I'm a girl and you didn't know' though. That'll just make me look stupid."

Sasuke smirked, "You don't need to do that to look stupid, Dobe. You do a pretty good job of that just walking around." Sakura started laughing.

"Say that again, Jerk!"

"Maa, maa," Kakashi sighed and placed his hands between the two genin, "Calm down, I was hoping for a response similar to that because I had an idea. Now that you two are on the inside, you might have some fun watching people who don't know and learning more about why people look underneath the underneath in some situations and not in others."

Inner Sakura cackled with glee. Sasuke smirked.

"You guys like that idea, huh?" Kakashi grinned, "So do I. You just keep being yourself, Naruto, you don't have to do anything."

"Of course, Kakashi-sensei," she grinned easily, "Who else would I be?"

Sakura smiled, _That's right. She's 'Naruto'. _There was really no other word to describe the ramen-loving, training-obsessed, loud-mouth girl,_ Who else could she be? _And suddenly it felt like old times again.

After another few minutes their food was finished and they parted ways, but before Sakura could head home Kakashi stopped her.

"Sakura, I want to give you a special mission that only you can do."

Excited at the prospect of being able to imporove her skills ("For Sasuke-kun!" Inner-Sakura cried) Sakura nodded eagerly, "What is it, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I want you to help Naruto adjust to being more like a girl," Sakura's face fell immediately, "Now, now. Just hear me out here. She's never had a female influence in her life before. Do you remember how she used to always ask you out on dates?"

"Yeah, I thought that was a little strange," Sakura muttered, "I mean, couldn't she have just said she wanted to 'hang out' or something?"

"That's just the thing; she grew up basically as a boy. If a boy goes out with a girl isn't it most always called a date?" Sakura blinked, "Naruto never had anyone to tell her otherwise, you see. Right now you are the closest female in her life and she really needs someone to help her with little things like that because she's never learned anything from a female perspective."

Sakura actually felt bad for her teammate, "How does she do it, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Eh? Do what?" Kakashi stared back blankly.

"How does she not let this affect her? If I was mistaken for a boy all the time I don't know what I'd do!"

Kakashi's face softened, "She doesn't know anything else," he replied and placed a hand on his student's shoulder, "That's why this mission I'm assigning to you is so important."

She hardened her resolve and nodded, "I'll do it."

Kakashi eye-smiled and with a reassuring, "I'm sure you will," he poofed away.

Sakura pushed aside her own fears for a moment, she would do this and not just because Kakashi-sensei had asked her, but because Naruto needed her. It was a nice feeling to be needed by someone on her team after she had felt so behind on the mission to wave.

And maybe, just maybe, she could get a new friend out of it…

… then again: this was _Naruto_, so maybe not.

.!.

"This will be a combined mission for Teams 7 and 8 to clean the bathhouses," The Hokage looked down at the two teams gathered below his desk. Kakashi and Kurenai saluted politely and retrieved the mission scrolls.

"We'll do our best, Hokage-sama," Kurenai nodded and led her team out the door. Kakashi echoed her sentiments lazily before following suit.

"Why can't we go on another _awesome_ mission, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto whined to the copy-nin.

"Now, now," he replied, placating. He eye-smiled and ruffled her hair a bit, "Not every mission turns out like our little trip to Wave. Actually… most missions don't."

"So you really did have a tough mission to Wave," Kurenai mussed, "What happened, Kakashi?"

"Well…" the man brought a hand up to his chin, "it started out with some chūnin-level assassins and ended with several jōnin-level missing-nin," his voice was calm, not indicating in any way that anything had just said was at all out of the ordinary.

Kurenai stared blankly at him. Her genin stared in disbelief. Crickets chirped in the background.

"What?" Kakashi blinked at them, "You don't believe me?" Kurenai raised an eyebrow… he sounded so _innocent_.

"I-is that true, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, a blush rising on her cheeks as Naruto turned to her. Kurenai noticed there was something subdued about the blonde's behavior, and then suddenly it was back to normal.

"Heck yes it is!" the genin exclaimed, "Zabuza didn't stand a chance against us, believe it!"

"Zabuza!" Kurenai exclaimed as Kakashi whacked the blonde over the head for giving away as-of-yet classified mission information, "Momichi Zabuza? The Demon of the Mist?"

Kakashi sighed, "That's the one."

"You're all still alive?" Kurenai was shocked.

"It was mostly Kakashi-sensei," Sakura answered with a sad frown, "Naruto and Sasuke-kun fought H-... the other one."

Kurenai suddenly remembered Kakashi had mentioned more than one missing-nin. She looked at her fellow jōnin, a question in her eyes. Kakashi saw and nodded solemnly. His team had experienced their first kill.

"Well I think you're lying!" Kiba shouted to the equally loud Naruto.

"Yeah! You wanna' fight?"

Kakashi stared, deadpan, and Kurenai sighed.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, adding her voice to the fray, "Shut up! They're our teammates for this mission!"

Hinata nervously poked her fingers together, trying and failing to say something to stop the escalating fight. Shino was silent. Sasuke made a small noncommittal noise ("Hn.") before turning away and walking ahead.

Kakashi picked up the two girls on his team by the back of their clothing while Kurenai did the same to Kiba just as fists were about to be launched.

"Now children," Kakashi chastised, "No fighting on a mission."

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei," his girls replied, one more sincerely than the other. Naruto was still glaring at the dog-user that was also being reprimanded by his sensei.

They got to the bathhouses without any more (significant) incidents, "Naruto, Sakura, you guys go with Kurenai and Hinata to clean the women's side. Shino and Kiba will come with me and Sasuke to clean the men's side," Kakashi ordered.

"What?" Kiba put up a fight, "Naruto's a guy too! He can't go over to the women's side!"

"What!" Sakura voice rose, getting defensive and forgetting that not everyone knew about her female teammate, "Naruto's-," Kakashi suddenly had a hand over her mouth, preventing her from speaking further.

"The bathhouses are closed right now," he explained, "no one's going to be in there, Kiba, so it's faster if we split up evenly to help with the cleaning."

"Keh," Kiba turned away, seeing the logic, "Fine," he couldn't help one last jibe toward Naruto, "girl."

Unfortunately, his meant-to-be-scathing remark only made the blonde laugh loudly, the pinkette grin, and the brooding Uchiha smirk.

"Let's go," Kakashi ushered the boys through the door to the changing area before anything more could be said with a light sigh.

The girls, as in fact they were all girls (unbeknownst to two of them), cleaned the women's side in near silence for a while before Naruto got bored.

So Naruto took to whistling happily as she swept the floor in the washroom, talking amicably with Kurenai while they cleaned out lockers in the changing area, giggling at Hinata's deep blush as they cleaned the wooden floors on the porch leading to the hot springs in the back, and chatting with Sakura while they cleaned the washbasins… all at the same time.

"I didn't know you knew the Shadow Clone, Naruto," Kurenai smiled at the blonde.

"Yeah, I could never do the regular Clone because I don't have enough chakra control," Naruto replied, "plus this is more useful 'casue I can be in more places than one, believe it!"

"Looks like we're done in here," Kurenai looked around, "let's head outside, everyone, to clean the rocks and the fence around the springs."

"Yes, sensei!" six voices replied, four of which belonged to Naruto.

"You can dispel your clones now, too, Naruto."

"Okay!" three puffs of smoke later three genin were ready to work outside.

They heard the boys (cough-Kiba-cough) on the other side of the fence and set to work quickly, not wanting to be beat by the opposite gender.

Only a few minutes later, right on time, Naruto started complaining.

"Ah!" Naruto complained, "It's too hot!"

No one replied, then Sakura got an idea, "Why don't you take off your jacket, Naruto?" she suggested. Her voice didn't give away any of the inner hysterical grin she was feeling.

"Ah! Good idea, Sakura-chan!" The blonde proceeded to remove her jacket with a certain white-eyed girl paying very close attention. What she saw made her face turn cherry-red.

"N-N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata stuttered.

"Eh? What's wrong, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Kurenai noticed the tell-tale signs that her student was about to faint and flashed into action. She grabbed the limp Hyuuga before she could fall into the spring and looked up to see what could have caused the fainting spell. _Maybe Naruto doesn't wear a shirt under his jacket; that would explain… it?_

Kurenai found her jaw dropping open. Naruto did, in fact, wear a very nice sleeveless black shirt underneath the jacket. But it revealed… things that a boy shouldn't have. Namely breasts and a waist that were both just beginning to develop.

"Naruto…" she said weakly, almost losing her footing on the slippery rocks due to her shock, "you're a… _girl_?" she nearly whispered the last word, suddenly unsure of her startling conclution.

"Eh?" the blonde looked down at her shirt as if suddenly realizing something, "oh! Yeah! Sorry… I forgot you guys didn't know."

"So your team knows?"

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei knew all along, but Sasuke and Sakura found out in our last mission. Kakashi-sensei says its good deception training for me and good training for everyone else in looking underneath the underneath."

Kurenai's eye twitched, she was certain the copy-nin only used that as an excuse. He was famous around Konoha for manipulating situations like this for his personal enjoyment, "Hinata's down for a while, let's just get this finished quick."

Naruto grinned and set back to work on the fence. Now that Kurenai looked, she wondered how she hadn't seen it before. The girl was decidedly cute with her blonde hair, blue eyes, and wide grin.

The cleaning went quickly once Hinata woke up a few minutes later and they went back to the front of the bathhouse to wait for the guys, Naruto back in her bright orange jacket.

"So we're all done, yes?" Kakashi walked out ahead of the boys to meet them from the men's side.

"Yes, and I found out some very interesting things from your _female_ student," Kurenai replied, hands on her hips as she glared at the silver-haired man.

"My my," he replied with a grin, "So she told you, hmm?"

"What did Sakura tell you, Sensei?" Kiba asked, interested.

"Nothing you'll ever know, Dog-breath!" Naruto goaded with a smirk.

Kurenai and Kakashi sighed as it all went downhill from there.

.!.

"Alright, you guys have the rest of the evening off," Kurenai waved and wandered off muttering something about 'silver-haired' and 'girls' and 'I can't believe I…'.

"YES!" Kiba and Akamaru both bounded off yelling something about a certain dish his mother was making for dinner (Kiba was at least, Akamaru was barking).

Hinata looked up to the sky from where she had been resting after training and frowned.

"Hinata-san?" she was startled by the cool voice.

"Ah, oh… Shino-kun. Did you want something?"

"I was just inquiring to your health. You seemed… unusually distracted during today's training exercises. Are you feeling unwell?"

"Oh… N-no, I'm fine. Well… I-I was distracted," she started poking her fingers together, a nervous blush rising over her cheeks, "I… I found out some very… um… that is to say… I…"

"Naruto-san revealed herself as a female?"

"EH! How d-did you know?"

"I have always known," Shino replied lightly… well, lightly for him, "My allies react differently to male and female presences. I felt, however, that if Naruto-san wished to keep it secret, I would honor her wishes on the matter. It seems that now she is starting to shed the protective layers she has built up around herself over the years."

"I… I want to be like her," Hinata admitted, "I always admired her in the Academy f-for never giving up. E-even when everyone would gang up on her."

"With all due respect, Hinata-san," Shino replied, a note of something serious in his voice, "I believe you already are like Naruto-san in that respect," he nodded politely and then turned to leave.

"T-thank you, Shino-kun!" the bug-user turned to nod once more before leaving the training area.

A bright smile lit Hinata's face.

.!.

After leaving her team after training that night, Kurenai found Kakashi again wandering the streets with a certain book in his hands, "Kakashi!"

"Eh? Oh, Kurenai, what's up?"

"How many people know about Naruto and why does she keep it hidden that she's actually a girl?"

"Ah... straight to the point hm?" he chuckled, but continued in the face of Kurenai's glare, "She's done it since she was young thinking it was to prove a girl could do things just like any boy while The Third saw it as a way to protect her innocence when she was too young to defend herself properly from villagers that would wish her harm."

Kurenai's face softened, "How many people look and don't see? _I_ couldn't see it until it was right in front of my face."

"She's in such a position that no one _wants_ to look close enough." Kakashi replied lightly, "Now that you know, a lot of things actually point toward the truth, right?" Kurenai nodded, "She doesn't hide it very deep, but that's the brilliance behind her deception." His fellow jōnin was quiet for a moment, then Kakashi spoke again, "Come with me for a while?"

"Huh?" Kurenai moved quickly to follow the already walking Kakashi, "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he replied cryptically.

They walked up to the Ichiraku Ramen stand and Kakashi invited her inside.

"Asuma-ojii!" she heard the voice of the very genin they had been discussing, it was indignant and accusing.

She spotted Asuma and the girl at the end of the counter, Asuma was doubled-over laughing allowing her to see past him to the blushing blonde and a laughing chūnin, Umino Iruka, "not you too, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto wailed, her cheeks reddening further.

"Well, Naruto-chan," Teuchi, the shop owner, spoke only just barely covering his own laughter, "it is pretty funny."

Kakashi moved past Kurenai with a smile and entered the conversation himself, "What's got Naruto-chan all flustered over here, hm?"

"Kakashi-sensei! They're making fun of me!"

"Well, I'm sure you deserved it," Kakashi chuckled.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto pouted, but there was a glimmer of humor in her blue eyes.

Kurenai smiled brightly as Kakashi walked up and ruffled his student's hair affectionately before turning to her with a look that clearly said, 'for as many people that can't see past the outside, she's still got important people around her who do care.'

"Ah!" Naruto had spotted her, "Kurenai-sensei! Come and have some ramen with us!"

She nodded and caught Asuma's eye, he grinned and flashed her a bright smile, patting the stool next to him.

One bowl of ramen couldn't hurt, she reasoned with herself, especially if it meant she could sit by Asuma the whole time she was eating it.

* * *

><p>Woot! Oh man I had fun writing this! …now to the chūnin exams… ugh. That's gonna' be a beast! But I shall persevere! Uh… hopefully… gah! –twitch-<p>

**Voting:** Okay, let's make this clear because I don't think it was last chapter. The voting is not for this story's pairings, it is for a side contest. It is a contest to see which shipp most people like/dislike to win an AU (to this story's universe) side one-shot. That said: continue to vote for your favorites and your least favorites! So far 25 couples is the record for one review (Way to go Nayami-chan! You also created 10 new couples that hadn't been voted for yet!)! :) I've had some really interesting responses and some of them have intrigued me so much that I'm actually considering putting them in the story. So go ahead and vote (yes to your favs and no to your hates)! You might just change my mind about something! :D

So! Feel free to tell me how you liked this fun little side-interlude, or that you were sad it was strangely lacking in Pakkun-actiony-goodness (oh how I wish there was more of a place for you my furry little friend!), or how much you absolutely loathe femNaru/Sasuke pairing (because quite a few of you seem to) or perhaps how much you absolutely love femNaru/Sasuke pairings (because quite a few of you seem to), or maybe that you're way excited to start the chūnin exams (and see… LEE! WAH! :D XD) or maybe you wish to point out a future plot-hole that has always glared at you in the face that you wish fixed later on in the story, but you don't have to. I'm just glad so many of you are enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it! :)

Until Monday!


	8. Chūnin Exam: Start!

Chapter 7! Don't forget to check out the reward for the 100th reviewer! (Yes there will be a reward-one-shot-type-thing for every 100 reviews!)

100: Believe it! (Pokémon/Naruto crossover) for Yami-No-HikariBre  
>200: Coming soon to a FanFic site near you! for one lucky reviewer!<p>

* * *

><p>"<em>Ah!" Naruto had spotted her, "Kurenai-sensei! Come and have some ramen with us!"<em>

_She nodded and caught Asuma's eye, he grinned and flashed her a bright smile, patting the stool next to him._

_One bowl of ramen couldn't hurt, she reasoned with herself, especially if it meant she could sit by Asuma the whole time she was eating it._

.!.

Naruto and Sakura walked with a purpose down the streets. Naruto looked over to her companion and grinned again. Sakura had finally agreed to go on a da-… to go _hang out_ (Sakura had explained the little social blunder she'd made by always asking her on a 'date').

"Okay, what kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use?" it took Naruto a moment before she realized that Sakura was asking her a direct question.

"Oh! Uh… what's conditioner?"

The pinkette gave her a look that was a mix between shock, horror and awe, "We have to fix this, come with me!"

The next few hours would later become a blur that left Naruto's head spinning and her Gama-chan much lighter (later when she visited Ichiraku's she would wonder where all her money had gone).

"Okay Naruto, remember what I told you," Sakura lectured, "First use your new shampoo and then use the conditioner, then when you get out of the shower and your hair is still damp use the shine spray, then you let it air-dry."

"Yes, Sakura-chan," Naruto replied dutifully (she wondered absently if she should salute or something at the almost militaristic tone Sakura's voice had taken).

"Okay, good. Your hair isn't very well taken care of as it is, so it might take a few washes for you to really see a difference, but don't give up!"

Naruto was about to reply when she noticed the rock. Or rather the obvious cardboard box with eye-holes painted to look like a rock.

"Um… Naruto?" Sakura raised an eyebrow at the box.

Naruto sighed and then in an over-obvious voice said, "Okay, I'll see you soon, Sakura-chan, I'm just going to walk down this street where there's absolutely no one waiting to ambush me or anything!" Just as she passed the rock she kicked it.

"AH! You caught us Boss!" Konohamaru jumped out holding his side (where Naruto's foot had connected) his friends right behind him looking only slightly traumatized from the 'sneak' attack.

"Konohamaru, rocks aren't square and they don't have eye-holes! You have to do way better than that to get me!"

Konohamaru ignored her rebuke, "You promised you'd play ninja with us today!"

Sakura's eye twitched, "A ninja _playing_ ninja?"

"I have important things to do today!" Naruto replied, the large bag of new hair-care supplies brandished blindly before her as an example.

"Oh? Who's this, Boss? Your girlfriend?" Konohamaru wiggled an eyebrow at Sakura and the pinkette promptly twitched disgustedly.

"Yeah!" Naruto replied with a grin, "This is Sakura-chan!"

"OH! Boss got a girl!" Moegi giggled, "I wish I could have a cool guy like you for my boyfriend, Boss!" she blushed and looked over at Konohamaru.

"NARUTO!" Inner-Sakura had finally been unleashed on the unsuspecting genin (Sakura had been frozen for a moment at what she was hearing), "If you don't want people thinking weird things about your sexual preferences stop saying weird things like that!" she screeched as she punched her teammate in the face.

Naruto went flying into the wall, before standing shakily back up, "But Sakura-chan, you're a girl and you're my friend, right?"

"Yes! But I'm not your girlfriend! Get it straight!" Sakura glowered before rounding on Konohamaru, "and you! How did you ever mistake me for Naruto's girlfriend!.? Sasuke-kun is the only one for me!" she advanced with a threatening ghostly impression of Inner-Sakura rising behind her.

Konohamaru and his friends screamed and turned tail to run.

"Oof!"

"That hurt," there were two strangers in the path, blocking the way. The boy had make-up all over his face and the girl had a giant fan strapped to her back, "Why don't you watch where you're going, moron?" the boy glared at Konohamaru and picked him up by the front of his shirt.

"Stop it," the girl glared at the boy, but didn't seem too nonplussed by the situation, "We'll get yelled at for this later."

"Yeah, Jerk!" Naruto jumped in, "Let Konohamaru go!"

The boy ignored the girl in favor of smirking at Naruto, "Why should I? I need a little fun while I can."

In spite of Sakura's worried grab to get her to stop Naruto charged forward, completely intent on hurting the idiot who would dare hurt her friends.

"As if you could ever even touch me," the boy smirked with a haughty laugh and deftly avoided her initial charge. Suddenly there was something invisible pulling at her legs, causing her to trip, "Heh, you can't even stay on your own two feet. You Konoha genin are weak."

"Idiot! Let him go or I'll make you pay!" Naruto hopped right back on her feet again, ignoring the scolding yells that Sakura was sending her.

"Yeah? What makes you think you could? I hate midgets like you and this stupid, rude kid here. Why shouldn't I just kill him?"

The girl rolled her eyes and looked away in disinterest as if doing that would remove her from the situation.

The boy made a threatening move and Naruto charged, "Hey!"

There was a flurry of movement where something flew out of a nearby tree and hit his wrist, "What are you doing in our village?" Konohamaru dropped to the ground and ran behind Naruto.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed with fangirl hearts in her eyes.

"Sasuke!" Naruto turned to the tree and couldn't help but feel a little relieved that he was there, even if she was a little peeved that he had gotten Konohamaru free so easily when she couldn't.

"Tch, another kid who can't stay out of the way. Who do you think you're attacking, punk. Get down here so I can show you how to really fight," Naruto suddenly noticed the large bandage-wrapped… thing on the boy's back as he pulled it around to use it.

"Hey!" the girl was interested again, "Using Karasu! What are you thinking?"

"Kankuro," a dark voice sounded from the same tree that Sasuke was in, causing everyone to turn.

_He... how did he…_ Naruto thought, staring intently at the red-head who'd just appeared. (She smirked a little at the shocked expression that suddenly came over Sasuke's face as well.)

"You're an embarrassment to our village," the red-head continued as if he wasn't hanging upside down on a tree branch, "losing control in a fight… pathetic."

The make-up boy, Kankuro apparently, sputtered, "But Gaara! They started it! I was just…"

"Shut up. I'll kill you," the dark atmosphere that settled over the whole street made no one doubt the truthfulness of Gaara's statement.

"Ah… I… I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too," the girl added.

"And I'm sorry to you," Gaara said to the Konoha genin, he jumped from the tree and disappeared, reappearing between the other two, "We got here early, but we didn't come here to mess around," he turned to look blankly at Kankuro.

"I-I know that."

Gaara started for a moment longer before turned, "Let's go."

"Wait!" Sakura's command startled both Naruto and Sasuke, "Judging from your headbands you're ninja from Sunagakure. It's forbidden for ninja from one village to enter another village, even if you are allies, without permission. Why are you here. Depending on your answer we may not be able to let you go."

"Heh!" The girl smirked and held out a passport, "How clueless can you get? We are from Suna, but we're here for the Chūnin Exam."

Naruto cocked her head in confusion, but decided it would probably be best to remain silent in the present company. _That boy… _she stared intently at the red-head, _he feels like… me._

Sasuke jumped out of the tree, "You. What's your name?"

"Temari," the girl twittered.

"Not you," Sasuke sneered, Naruto recognized his annoying-fangirl-glare™, "Him."

"Sabaku no Gaara," the red-head replied, "And your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"I'm Uzumaki Naru," Naruto spoke quietly, meeting Gaara's eyes.

There was silence for a moment, "I see," Gaara nodded to them before turning to walk away again, "Let's go," the other two sand genin followed after him, both shooting strange looks at Naruto before they did.

They were all quiet on the path for a while, Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, "Uzumaki… Naru?" he raised an eyebrow (he remembered hearing Haku use it before, but wasn't quite sure if it was a hallucination as he was only half-conscious).

"Yeah it's my name, Jerk," Naruto stuck her tongue out, "What, did you think my real name was Naruto?"

"What?" Sakura started, "But… but I thought that… what you mean your real name_ isn't_ Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged, "I've have that nickname since I was three or four. It's more boy-ish than Naru so I've just used my nickname for basically my whole life."

"EH!" all three of the Konohamaru group shouted with equal amounts of shock and horror, "Naruto-nii-san is a girl?"

Naruto blinked, "Oh… you guys didn't know, right," she grinned, "Yeah, I'm a girl," she raised a sheepish hand to the back of her head.

"I… I can't believe I've been looking up to a _girl_," Konohamaru crouched down on the ground with depression lines hanging over his head. Suddenly, though, he got the feeling that his life was in immediate danger. He looked up to see both Moegi and Sakura with flames rising behind them.

"What was that you said?" Sakura asked menacingly. Konohamaru squeaked and wisely ran away. While Moegi and Udon followed Sakura stayed behind, content in the fear she had induced.

"Oh!" Naruto suddenly remembered something, "Sakura-chan, what are the Chūnin Exams?" Sasuke and Sakura face-palmed.

"They're exactly what they sound like, Dobe!" Sasuke responded with an eye-twitchy glare.

"It's the exams to see which genin are ready to become chūnin," Sakura explained further, deadpan.

"Ooh! I wanna' enter!" Naruto adopted a 'cool' pose with a blinding grin, "I'll definitely pass because I'm gonna' be Hokage!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Whatever," he turned away and disappeared into the trees again.

"Naruto! Look what you did! You made Sasuke run off! Wait up Sasuke-kun!" Sakura took off down the street after him.

Naruto blinked for a moment before smiling. Her team was totally back to normal. A while bottle caught her eye, "AH! My shampoo!" In her haste to protect Konohamaru she'd thrown all her bags to the side, spilling everything out into the dirt. She hurriedly picked everything back up again to get home… but not before stopping by Ichiraku's ("Hey… where'd all my money go?").

.!.

"You're late!" Sakura shouted as she pointed. Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head.

"Heh, sorry. I figured since Kakashi-sensei doesn't come for at least three hours I could get in a little extra training this morning instead of just sitting here," she explained lightly. Sasuke looked up in amazement and she continued, "That's usually where I am whenever I'm late."

_What? How come I've never thought of that? _He thought, glaring angrily at the supposed 'dead last'. Naruto had grown in leaps and bounds since the academy. She actually seemed like a bright girl ever since they'd been training with Kakashi. She picked up techniques nearly as fast as he did, but she was way behind in every subject… as if her learning had been sabotaged or something. "Feh," he turned his glare away and started plotting to begin his own training.

"Hey!" Naruto spoke again, "We could all practice together in the mornings while we're waiting for Kakashi-sensei!"

"That's a great idea, Naruto!" Sasuke could feel Sakura's eyes boring into the side of his skull, "Why don't we start right now?"

"Come on, Sasuke-Jerk," Naruto grabbed his arm and pulled him into a run with her, "Lets warm up so we can spar!"

There went Sasuke's personal training plans. The last Uchiha sighed (inwardly, of course, because actually sighing would ruin his image) and jerked his arm free of the bonde's grasp and charged ahead.

Needless to say it soon became a race.

Kakashi (from his usual place in a nearby high location such as a tree or up a pole) sat observing his students as he had since he'd first been assigned the team. _Finally!_ his mind screamed, _Finally they're doing something proactive with the time!_ It had been getting so boring just watching them sit and wait for him (but at least he'd gotten to catch up on all the Icha Icha books he'd missed in the last several years due to extended missions and the such-like).

They were actually making progress as ninja! Kakashi sore he was going to start to do a little happy dance… only that would completely destroy the image he'd created over the years so he refrained (with much difficulty). He followed them stealthily as they did a warm up and after Sasuke and Naruto started sparring he noticed Sakura on the side worriedly wringing her hands. Hmm… he would have to figure out a way to get her more involved. He knew she didn't feel adequate, especially after some of the things Sasuke had said to her.

She had seemed interested in medicine back in Wave, that was a possibility at least.

He watched for his usual three-ish hours before he let them notice he was there, "Yo."

"Kakashi-sensei! You're late!" his usual greeting from his two louder students and a scoffed, "hn," from the quiet one.

"Well, this is a bit impulsive on my part, but I nominated you all for the Chūnin Exams," he explained shortly. (Actually it wasn't the least but impulsive on his part, but he wouldn't let them know that. He figured that after the life-threatening situation in Wave they had actually started taking team-training seriously, so maybe the experience in the exam would help them out in much the same way.)

He waited for the recation… "I love you Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto, almost before he could even move, had wrapped him in a bear hug around the neck.

"Naruto," he said blankly, "please get off me." She did as he asked and started giggling madly as she studied the entrance slip in her hands, "It's just a nomination," he explained, "it's your choice whether or not to actually take the test. If you want to take the test turn your papers in at room 301 by 4 tomorrow night."

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto grinned brightly. Kakashi eye-smiled and fluffed her hair, he blinked. Did her hair feel… _softer_? He looked over to Sakura, who was worriedly staring down at the application sheet, and grinned. Sakura and Naruto were doing just fine at least.

"Well, that's it. Bye," he didn't really feel like training them today, besides, they had been doing pretty well on their own. He poofed away.

"Chūnin Exam! Chūnin Exam! I'm so excited!" Naruto's grin hadn't faded as she bounced along the path, everything else forgotten, "My first step on the way to being Hokage!"

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called nervously before Sasuke could disappear, "I… I need some help with what Kakashi-sensei taught us the other day… w-will you stay?"

The dark-haired boy stared blankly at her for a moment before silently tucking his Chūnin Exam sheet into a pocket, "Naruto!"

The blonde turned at her name, "Eh?"

"Stay, we're doing some training."

"Yeah! I'm gonna' whoop your butt, Sasuke!"

"Shut up, Dobe."

Sakura smiled in relief, _He actually stayed! _Inner Sakura squealed.

"Huh? You needed help with that, Sakura-chan?" Naruto was in her face unexpectedly, "It's really easy! Here: Sasuke! Stand over there so I can show Sakura how it's done!"

"What… but!" Sakura was shocked when Sasuke actually did as Naruto had asked.

"Now Sakura-chan, you start with the feint…"

.!.

The next day at noon all three of them met up again.

"Ready, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Yeah, Naruto," she nodded back. Not quite confidently, but not timidly either.

Sasuke nodded mutely at her and at his cue they all turned to go to the building (mostly he just started walking off and the girls had to scramble to catch up after they realized what he was doing).

"Hey, hey! Sakura-chan, why'd you write your name on the paper?"

"You have to sign it, Naruto!" she nearly snapped, "You mean you didn't? Can't you read?" she said exasperatingly. As she searched in her pockets for a pen for Naruto and simultaneously tried to keep up with Sasuke she missed the slight blush that threatened her blonde teammates face, "Here," she handed Naruto a pen to write her name.

After a few more minutes they reached the building the exams were to be held.

"What kind of person designs alternating staircases in a building?" Naruto grumbled, "Why do we have to walk all the way across to get to the next set of stairs?"

"Because it's practical for a Ninja building," Sakura went into book-mode (as Naruto had so dubbed it), "If an enemy broke in it would take them a lot longer to get out when every floor isn't connected by the same staircase."

"But ninja's all use the windows anyway!" Naruto complained. Sakura had no comeback to that, "eh? What's going on up there?"

There was a crowd of genin surrounding a room with the label of 301.

_But… but we've only gone up one staircase… we're on the second floor,_ Naruto stared at the room sign, unconsciously cocking her head as she tried to figure it out.

"Heh," Sasuke smirked, _this is a chance to thin out the weaklings_, "Let's go," he said quietly to his team, "to the third floor."

"Yeah," Sakura nodded, glad she wasn't just seeing things.

"I knew you'd get it," Sasuke replied, his smirk widening, "After all, your analytical and genjutsu abilities are the most improved on our team."

Sakura smiled, her nervousness disappearing in an instant thanks to his words.

_Good,_ Sasuke thought, his words had the exact effect he'd wanted them to have.

"Look at them!" the genin at the door said suddenly, pointing to team seven, "They have the right idea of giving up before the start of the exams!"

"What!" Naruto frowned, her act-first-question-later instinct taking over.

"Dobe!" Sasuke said sharply, she stopped, glared, and turned around to lead the way to the next staircase.

They heard some follow after them. Once they had reached the stairwell they were confronted.

"Hey! My name is Rock Lee. You must me Sakura!" a guy with the biggest eyebrows any of the three of them had ever seen walked straight up to Sakura, "Let's go out together! I'll protect you with my life!" he gave thumbs up and winked. A starburst glinted off his white teeth in the dim light of the stairwell.

All three team seven genin twitched.

"No... Way…" Sakura replied, disbelievingly, "You're lame."

Lee deflated in defeat. Naruto laughed.

"You," a boy with long dark hair and Hyuuga eyes spoke to Sasuke, "What's your name?"

Sasuke smirked, "When you ask someone's name it's polite to give your own first."

The other boy smirked (Naruto had never seen a smirk so identical to her teammate's before and it startled her momentarily), "You're all rookies, aren't you. How old are you."

"We don't have to answer you," Sasuke replied snidely and turned away to the stairs.

"Sasuke-kun! Wait," Sasuke almost visibly twitched at the fangirl quality that Sakura's voice had taken again. He had been hoping to make it though this exchange without any of that.

"Hey!" Naruto's sudden exclaim of surprise made Sasuke and Sakura turn, thinking something was wrong, "It's you!" Naruto was pointing to the girl with two buns.

"Eh?" the girl raised an eyebrow, "Uh… I sure hope it's me. I've never been anyone else as far as I can remember…"

"No, no! You don't understand!" Naruto said again, nearly jumping up and down in excitement, "It's _you_!"

* * *

><p><strong>Rant!<strong> Anyone else notice how the exams started on the third floor but there was a whole group on the second floor? What are they? Idiots? "oh hey, we should stop and check out the second floor just in case… oh look! There's a third floor room on this floor! Lucky we didn't go to the third floor or we would have missed it!" I mean… really? Ugh. I made up the best explanation I could. XD

Keep voting for your fav pairings! The winning couple (for a Naru/? pairing) has 11 votes and the losing has a -4. There are a total of 222 votes (positive and negative) so far as well. Keep it up!

Also. If there is anything in the Naruto-verse that has bugged you such as the second floor thing, or the Kakashi/backup thing from a few chapters ago, or that every single Sasuke-retrieval fic you've read has Sasuke getting off without consequences for betraying the village… mention it! I love having plot-holes to fix!

So! Feel free to tell me all about the speculation as to what Naruto is referring to as she points wildly at Tenten, or how much you really really LOVE Lee! And Gai! XD Or maybe you'd like to see more of your favorite character, or possibly something I wrote doesn't make sense (seeing as most of this was written about an hour before I posted it XD) and you need it clarified, or maybe you are content with simply saying "update soon" and "great chapter" (but I should make you aware that longer reviews earn longer replies to them ;D ), or you can simply enjoy this chapter without reviewing. I'll be good with anything you decide!

Until Monday!


	9. Chūnin Exam: Rivalries Begin

Chapter 8 ariveth.

* * *

><p>"<em>Hey!" Naruto's sudden exclaim of surprise made Sasuke and Sakura turn, thinking something was wrong, "It's you!" Naruto was pointing to the girl with two buns.<em>

"_Eh?" the girl raised an eyebrow, "Uh… I sure hope it's me. I've never been anyone else as far as I can remember…"_

"_No, no! You don't understand!" Naruto said again, nearly jumping up and down in excitement, "It's you!"_

"Naruto, you know her?" Sakura asked.

Naruto grinned, all but ignoring Sakura, "You're the one from the playground!"

The girl and her male teammates were still confused, "The playground?"

"When I was five I was out on the playground and some older boys started picking on me," Naruto explained…

-Flashback-

"_Demon!"_

"_Monster!"_

"_I'm not a monster!" Naru cried, angry tears forming in her eyes, "Shut up!"_

"_Even my mom says you are," one boy sneered, "That's why you have no friends and nobody likes you!" he pushed the little five-year-old blonde to the ground._

_Naru glared and was about to retaliate when someone stepped in front of her, "Hey! Leave her alone!"_

_Naru stopped in her angry pursuit to stare in shock at the person who stood up for her. No one had ever done anything like that before._

"_Yeah? What are you gonna' do about it?" the oldest boy laughed._

"_I'm warning you, I'm in the academy, I'm training to be a kunoichi!" the girl replied, dropping easily into a beginning taijutsu stance (but Naru didn't know that at the time)._

"_Oh! I'm so scared!" a boy mocked._

"_Ha! A little girl like you could never be a ninja!"_

_Naru could only watch in amazement as the cute girl with the pigtails proceeded to beat the older kids until they were unable to move, "I'm not trying to be just a ninja," she said matter-of-factly to the mostly unconscious boys, "I'm going to be a kunoichi!" She 'humph'ed and turned away, looking back toward Naru._

_She recoiled unconsciously from her gaze, trying to make herself as small as possible, not wanting this amazing person to be angry at her (because everyone seemed to get angry at her when they looked at her)._

"_Are you okay?" that startled Naru even further, no one ever asked her that except for the Ojii-san and the occasional ANBU body guard. She nodded mutely, "My name's Tenten, what's yours?"_

"_Naru."_

"_Well, Naru, if those boys ever pick on you again you come and find me, okay?" She nodded again, "Boys will never be as cool as us girls, so don't you let someone like them get you down. You're much stronger than they are."_

"_Like you?" Naru asked quietly (questions to anyone but the Ojii-san tended to be as bad as someone seeing her)._

_Tenten laughed, "Yeah! Like me!" with a parting smile, "But not a lot of people think that girls are very strong, so I'm going to prove them wrong and be the best kunoichi ever!"_

-End Flashback-

Naruto, of course, didn't tell the entire story (her friends didn't know about the whole Kyūbi situation and she preferred it to stay that way, at least for now).

"So then, I figured that the strongest ninja in the village was the Hokage and that to prove that girls really were awesome I would become the first girl Hokage!" Naruto finished with a flourish and a wide grin, "And it's all thanks to you, Tenten!"

Tenten was staring open-mouthed, "You're Naru? You're the scared little girl I saved that day? I always wondered! What happened to your hair?"

Naruto grinned and brought a hand behind her head, "Well… there was an incident with some gum and some scissors and I ended up liking the way it turned out."

The girls went on talking amicably leaving the rest of their team in confusion (Naruto's telling of her story didn't make as much sense as it really could have) for a moment of silence.

"You mean… this youthful Naruto is actually a youthful… Naru?" Lee was shell-shocked.

Neji's eyes were wide at the revelation (It was like a OMG face, only Neji-style, so not really like that at all).

Sasuke couldn't help it: "You're supposed to be a year ahead of us and you can't even figure out someone's gender."

Neji glared, Lee ignored in favor of attempting to woo his new person of interest.

"Naru-san! We should date! I'd protect you with my life!"

Naruto, a little annoyed at being interrupted while she was having a conversation with a new-found friend, frowned at him, "I don't need protection! I can take care of myself!"

Lee opened his mouth to say something else, but Tenten beat him to it, "Good luck in the exam you guys, and Naru, I'd love to spar with you sometime. We should set up a time after the exam so we can hang out."

Naruto grinned enthusiastically, "Yeah!"

"Come on boys," Tenten, who was obviously the wearer of the pants on her team, started walking away and Neji and Lee were forced to follow.

"Wait for me, Naru-san! Sakura-san!" Lee called back with a little wink that sent a shower of genjutsu-like pink hearts racing toward them. Both girls shuddered.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew," Sakura closed her eyes and tried to banish the picture from her mind. It wasn't working. Naruto just shivered and murmured dark things under her breath.

Sasuke 'hn'ed and unconsciously stepped in front of his teammates to shield them from the onslaught of pink hearts flying through the air. The little hearts caught sight of his glare and sped away to cower in the corner before shimmering away into nothingness. He smirked and then started up the stairs without another word, leaving the girls to run after him to catch up… again.

"Sasuke-kun that was so cool!" Sakura finally found the nerve to say as Naruto muttered something under her breath.

"What was that, Dobe?" Sasuke smirked, "I couldn't hear you."

Naruto's face started turning red, "Nothing, Jerk! I didn't say anything to you!"

"Oh really?" Sasuke's smirk seemed to double in intensity as they stepped out of the stairwell and onto the third floor, "I could have sworn I heard you-"

"Sasuke! I was so shocked by the unveiling of your youthful companion's true gender that I forgot to do something!" Lee was back, Sakura and Naruto shuddered at the sudden voice, "Fight me!"

Sasuke turned to stare dully at the green-clad genin, "No."

"Heh, I had a feeling you would say that," Lee dropped into a stance that team 7 didn't recognize, "Would it change your mind to tell you that I am the strongest genin in the exam?"

That caught Sasuke's attention, "Heh, oh really?"

"And everyone is saying that you are the rookie to beat," Lee continued, also smirking now, "A real genius."

Naruto grumbled, "Come on! He doesn't need a bigger head than he already has!" she crossed her arms, "And why doesn't anyone challenge me? I'm way stronger than Sasuke! Fight me, Lee!"

Lee blinked, his smirk falling from his face, "But Naru-san…!"

Naruto glared and fell into her stance, "Come on, Lee."

The poor boy was conflicted, "B-but Naru-san…!"

Naruto got tired of waiting. She charged, moving in with a quick punch in the waiting. Lee easily avoided her obvious attack, "Naru-san, I do not wish to fight you!"

"Yeah, well I want to fight you!" Naruto moved in to attack again, "And stop calling me Naru!"

"But that is you most youthful name, is it not?" Lee asked, slightly confused as he easily side-stepped, jumped and ducked over all of Naruto's anger-fueled attacks.

"Yeah, but not everyone knows!" Naruto replied, launching another series of kicks and punches.

"Ah! You wish to hide your true identity?" Lee's voice took on a note of understanding.

"ARGH! Stop moving and let me hit you!"

Lee made his move then, faster than any of the three genin could see, his fist connected with Naruto's stomach and sent her flying into the wall. He appeared behind her before she could hit and used his leg to knock her back to the center of the room, "I'm sorry, Naruto-san, you were the one who wished to fight," he moved in for another blow.

Only to be blocked by another set of arms. Sasuke had stepped in.

"Sasuke-kun! You have changed your mind?"

"Keep away from my team," Sasuke said darkly, his face was set in a glare and there was no hint of the usual smirk he had just before a fight.

Lee's smirk returned full force, "You are serious. Good."

Sasuke's face darkened further, but he didn't say anything.

"Leaf Whirlwind!" Lee made the first move. Sasuke blocked most of the attack but the force still threw him back a few feet.

"What-?" Lee was already attacking again before he could finish his thought outloud. Sasuke moved to block the overhead kick and found another foot suddenly coming in from the side. He was knocked to the ground, feeling the full force of the unexpected attack.

When another attack didn't come right away Sasuke risked a glance. Lee was standing, his smirk still on his face as if he hadn't moved in the first place. It was time to really get serious.

"The Sharingan!" Sakura, of course, noticed immediately.

Naruto was slowly pulling herself to her feet behind him. Sasuke charged now, confident he could see anything the other genin dished out. There was another kick, he didn't even see it coming with the Sharingan, right under his chin. It knocked him out for a half second, and when he came to he was in the air falling back to the ground, only Lee was now behind him.

"Even if you can see my moves, your body is not fast enough to react to the speed of my Taijutsu," he was saying, Sasuke could feel him preparing for an attack that had a feeling of finality to it, "Among the ranks of ninja of the Hidden Leaf there are geniuses. Geniuses of Genjutsu, of Ninjutsu. But you could say that my Taijutsu is the ultimate weakness to your Uchiha Sharingan."

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Sasuke!"

He could hear the girls on his team.

"I'm going to prove that hard work," Lee continued in his ear, "surpasses genius."

It happened so quickly that none of them really understood what was going on: there was a turtle and then there was a man who looked frighteningly like Lee (…or was it the other way around?), there were declarations of Youth (with a capitol 'y' of course), genjutsu sunsets, somehow 'Kakashi' and 'rival' were worked into the same sentence, and genin team 7 were sent on their way. They stood in the hallway blinking for a moment.

"What just happened?" Sakura voiced.

"Oh! You three decided to come."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried, relief evident in her voice, at least something made sense (Kakashi randomly appearing was a constant in all their lives), "What are you doing here?"

"Just here to wish you good luck on the test. If one of you hadn't decided to come I would have had to stop you too, seeing as you have to have a team to take the test."

"What? Why didn't you tell us that?" Naruto glared at the man.

"I didn't want any of you to be pressured into going by the others," he gave a pointed eye-smile in Sakura's direction. She smiled back with a grateful nod, "Well… good luck you three. Try not to die, okay?" and on that happy note he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"You don't think he was serious, do you?" Naruto asked after a moment of stunned silence. Sasuke turned away without a word and Sakura started to nervously wring her hands. Naruto and Sakura shared a look, Naruto shrugged and they both turned to once again follow after Sasuke.

.!.

"Eek! Sasuke-kun you were almost late!" a shrill voice sounded through the room.

"Get off of Sasuke-kun, you Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled just as shrilly. Naruto just stared, noting that Sasuke's face was slowly morphing into his 'I wish someone would help me escape from the fangirls but I'm way to prideful to ask for any help in this matter' glare™.

"Oh… it's you Big-forhead… anyway. I haven't seen you in so long, Sasuke-kun! I've been waiting every day in excitement to see you again!"

"Yo, Naruto," Shikamaru called from the wall, "So you guys are taking this troublesome test too?"

"Shikamaru! Chōji!" Naruto wandered over with a wide grin.

"Naruto-san," they turned at the smooth voice.

"Shino!" Naruto waved, "How's it going?"

"Everyone's here?" Shikamaru groaned.

"H-h-hello, N-N-Narut-to-k-san," Hinata blushed bright crimson as she came up.

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto cocked her head to the side and walked right up to the poor girl, "Are you okay? You look sick."

Naruto's proximity seemed only to make the problem worse.

"Naruto-san," Shino placed a restraining hand on the blonde's shoulder, "Hinata-san is merely having trouble adjusting to some… information you recently revealed to her."

"What? Oh!" Naruto understood, "Why? Hinata-chan? Doesn't this mean we can hang out and train and do stuff together?"

Hinata's red face seemed to get redder, "A-ah! O-of c-c-course, Naruto-san."

"Good!"

"What the heck are you even talking about?" Kiba burst in, "Did Naruto tell you he likes you or something?" he teased.

Hinata nearly fainted.

Naruto nearly mauled him.

Shikamaru sighed.

Chōji munched on his chips.

Sakura and Ino argued.

Shino silently stepped between Naruto and Kiba, preventing a fight.

Sasuke's eye twitched.

Their teachers all watched from another room and shook their heads. Their teams were so going to die in the exams.

* * *

><p>My lovely reviewers I have failed you! It is Tuesday and I didn't get this chapter out yesterday! :'( I am so sorry! Here is my excuse: I have been on an In Plain Sight obsession recently and Naruto has taken a backburner (the horror!) Don't worry though, In Plain Sight only has two episodes in the season left so this obsession won't last very long (at least until the new season starts… hopefully there is a new season… XD). Anyway. I'll still do my best to keep up with this story! Again sorry for the delay and for the shortness of the chapter! I will do better next week! Also I haven't read through this for grammar and spelling mistakes yet, but I will sometime this week so they won't be there for long, but feel free to mention them anyway! ;)<p>

Anyway, I totally deserve the outrage you must feel at me not getting this chapter out on Monday! Or you can vote for your fav couples, or you can mention what you thought about Tenten and Naru's reactions! Or Lee and Gai (I may flesh that out later, but I figured getting you guys _something_ was more important at the moment). Sorry again!

See you next Monday! (Hopefully XD)


	10. Chūnin Exam: First Test

Chapter 9 Here! Hopefully up to regular length standards and usual disclaimer applying!

* * *

><p><em>Hinata nearly fainted.<em>

_Naruto nearly mauled him._

_Shikamaru sighed._

_Chōji munched on his chips._

_Sakura and Ino argued._

_Shino silently stepped between Naruto and Kiba, preventing a fight._

_Sasuke's eye twitched._

_Their teachers all watched from another room and shook their heads. Their teams were so going to die in the exams._

Just before Naruto was about to charge Kiba a voice interrupted the group, "You're all screaming like a bunch of idiots. You must be the rookies fresh out of the academy this year. Geez, quiet down, this isn't a picnic."

"Who do you think you are?" Ino stepped forward, her fangirl expressions vanished in an instant.

"I'm Kabuto, but that's not what you should be worrying about," the boy in glasses smirked and pointed behind them in answer to the unspoken question. A team of three genin were all glaring dangerous looking daggers in the direction of the rookie 9 (as they were going to become known as quite soon), "That's a team from Amegakure and they don't have the best of tempers even when everyone isn't all hyped up for the exam. So I suggest you all cool it down."

"You seem to know a lot, Kabuto-san, was it? Is this your second time here?" Sakura, having quickly regained her head (Asuma and Kakashi were both relaxing a little at the calm seriousness their girls quickly adapted to in the new situation).

"It's my seventh," Kabuto replied frankly, "So my fourth year trying to pass this exam. But I do remember what the first time was like," he offered a small smile, "So I guess I can't really blame you all for being a little amped up as well."

"What?" Naruto's eyes narrowed, "Seven times? Are you an idiot or something?"

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded, slamming a fist into the blonde's head (Kakashi's hope at Sakura's reactions slowly dwindled back into the 'my team is so dead' range again at Naruto's, Asuma and Kurenai snickered).

"Dobe," Sasuke shook his head with narrowed eyes, for ticking off a potential enemy, and a light smirk, for the insult he was about to bestow, "If being an idiot was all that was required to fail the test you'd be a genin for life."

"What was that, you Jerk!" Naruto made to charge the Uchiha when a voice held her back.

"Uzumaki Naru…to," Kabuto was reading off a card of some sort and paused halfway through her name, looking up at her shocked face with a raised eyebrow, "Dead last of the academy, your teammates Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura with Hatake Kakashi as sensei. Taijutsu skills are poor, Genjutsu skills are worse, no bloodline, below average weapons skills, and below average ninjutsu skills. But… if I had to guess I would say that your deception skills are quite good," he smirked here, looking her over and muttering quietly so only a couple people could hear, "I wonder how many people know?"

Naruto unconsciously brought a hand to her stomach (her mind, of course, jumping straight to Kyūbi issue and not to the gender issue).

"Back off, Kabuto-san," Sakura stepped in front of the blonde, noticing her guarded expression.

"So you have info cards," Sasuke also stepped forward, bringing Kabuto's attention to him instead of the girls on his team, "What about Gaara of Sand and Rock Lee of Leaf?"

"Some people you're worried about then?" in a quick movement two cards were in his hand and Naruto's was back in the deck, Sasuke smirked as he started reading the information, "These guys are some of the top genin from their villages. Just like every other team here from Leaf, Rain, Sand, Grass, Sound, and other places."

"S-so they're all the elite teams from their countries?" Hinata stepped forward to ask, Shino blinked at his teammate's sudden bravery.

Kabuto smirked again, "Exactly. You're all treating this like a game, but it's not going to be easy."

The rookie teams noticed Naruto start to shake. But just as Sakura went to comfort the obviously distressed prankster, she lived up to her name.

"Haha!" she burst out laughing, unable to contain it any longer, "You think that's gonna scare me? My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm not gonna back down just 'cause some idiot who can't pass the test six times in a row says I should be scared!" She grinned at Kabuto, "I'm not losing here because I have to become Hokage! Believe it! I'm gonna beat all you wusses!" (Kakashi grinned at his most unpredictable student's exclamation, Asuma shook his head fondly and Kurenai stared with a raised eybrow. But they all had the hopes for their teams raised just a little by the confidence that the young ninja exuded.)

Shikamaru's eye twitched as murmurs started between all the teams, "Good job, Naruto…. Now you've made an enemy of everyone in the room."

"ARGH!" Sakura grabbed Naruto in a choke-hold so she couldn't speak anymore (she did try of course, but Sakura merely tightened her hold), "Idiot!" she felt the glaring eyes of the other genin and laughed nervously, "Eh… it was just a joke, everyone! Naruto's not the quickest kunai in the pouch… heheh…"

Just when several genin were about to advance past the point of comfort for them the door banged open, "Shut up and sit down, you worthless bunch of ingrates!"

A large, intimidating man stepped forward followed by a group of other quite menacing exam proctors. They had shunshined in (with one of them landing in the hallway to menacingly open the door) so they were all surrounded still by an ominous smoke from the technique. "There will be absolutely no fighting outside of exam requirements. Any insignificant swine caught breaking the rules from here on out will be immediately disqualified. Do I make myself clear?"

The leader of the group of intimidating people had the scariest glare Naruto had ever seen.

"Well, this exam sounds easy," one of the Sound genin smirked. The scary man didn't even respond, making the genin angry.

"You will all pick out a number and sit in the assigned seats. We'll hand out the tests when you're done."

There was a moment of general consent as people started to do what they were told.

"WHAT?" Naruto burst out, "It's a written test?" (Kakashi face-palmed.)

.!.

_What do I do? What do I do? What do I DO? _Naruto's inner thoughts were all panicked as she stared down at the test that was obviously way out of her mental league, _I can't fail and get Sakura-chan and the Jerk disqualified too! What do I do? But cheating! I just have to cheat in a way that I won't get caught!_

"Naruto-chan," a quiet voice, so quiet she almost couldn't hear it, broke her from her screaming mind, it was Hinata, "You can look at my test."

"Why would you do that, Hinata-chan? You could get caught too."

"B-because…" Naruto was confused when the girl's cheeks reddened, "because I don't want you to get disqualified here. The rookies have to stick together after all; there are only nine of us."

_I can't… I can't get Hinata-chan in trouble, _"Thanks anyway Hinata, but I can't get you disqualified too."

"O-okay," Naruto couldn't help but smile lightly at her new-found friend.

The whispered conversation calmed her panicked mind, _Okay, calm down. Think about all the things that Kakashi-sensei has taught us._

She took a calming breath and closed her eyes. Underneath the underneath. Figure out what this test is really for. Just like Kakashi-sensei's bell test wasn't really to test their skills but to test their teamwork. Or how all the D-rank missions were really there to build friendships between new teams (because honestly, you can't hunt down the menace named Tora the Cat without facing a traumatic bonding experience… sometimes several). _Underneath the underneath._ Just like her entire situation where no one bothered to look closer. _I'm going to look closer,_ Naruto promised herself, concentrating on the situation and the rules they'd been told and the purposes of the tests she'd faced before.

_I had it right before! _she opened her eyes with a snap. The whole test was geared toward losing points if you were _caught_ cheating. They were testing their cheating skills! Her blue eyes hardened into a delightful smirk as years of self-inflicted hardcore prank training came to the surface.

If they wanted her to cheat… oh boy would she _cheat_. Experienced eyes wandered the room and caught sight of the unwitting prey: a boy at the end of the row with a self-satisfied smirk just turning over his paper.

Target acquired.

Naruto knew, as any good prankster did, that sometimes the best way to blend in was to actually stand out. She had always wanted to do this.

Plan… Start!

Discretely she lowered her hands to the level of the table; right to the edge so the examiners in front couldn't make anything out and the one's at the side were blocked by the other people on the row. Just as she was about to mold her chakra a kunai went whizzing past her skull.

"Wha-!" long ago had the reflex 'It wasn't me' excuse been stamped down. Way too suspicious.

"What was that for?" the genin behind her stood noisily to his feet.

"You messed up five times. You're disqualified," a proctor from the side chuckled darkly.

The scary man (as he had been so fondly dubbed by Naruto) smiled, which ended up somewhere between a grimace and a horrifying sort of 'why so serious?' face, "You and the two on your team get out of here."

Naruto calmed her frazzled nerves as the three people dejectedly left the room. She was right, her plan had yet to be discovered. Once again back in her Prank Mode™ she repositioned her hands.

The flare of chakra made several examiners turn to look at her, but she ignored their eyes and acted completely normal.

.!.

"Naruto!" Kakashi jumped from his position at the wall, Asuma fell out of the chair he'd been sitting in and Kurenai did a spit-take with the coffee she'd just returned with.

"Kakashi! Your most youthful student has indeed figured out the purpose of the test!" a Green (that color was such a… unique thing… that it did indeed deserve the capital) clad monster exclaimed, "We are now tied at 52 wins!"

The Naruto clones instinctively stepped away from the bowl-cut jōnin with sudden déjà vu of something they couldn't quite remember.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei! Asuma-ojii! Kurenai-sensei!" the proclaimed leader of the group of clones waved, "Sorry we can't stay, but we need to do some things for the boss," with an identical half-wave half-salute all the clones walked out the door.

"Wha-Wha-," Kurenai seemed unable to breath properly and put a hand to her chest as she coughed through the accidentally inhaled coffee.

"Konoha's Number One Most Surprising Ninja, hu?," Asuma laughed, "I was skeptical at first, Kakashi, but I think you labeled her perfectly."

Kakashi only eye-smiled and settled back into a lean against the wall while Gai cried pitifully in the corner over his loss and the total dismissal from the Youthful maiden of Kakashi's team whom he had met earlier that day.

.!.

Half the room blinked as a coin rolled under the door across the room and all the way to a spinning rest at the feet of the proctor at the opposite side.

"Oh my goodness!" a decidedly feminine voice exclaimed. The door swung open and a scantily clad, very buxom blonde (whiskerless version) wandered in, "Have any of you seen a coin roll by here?" she tilted her head and looked up at them through her eyelashes.

Half the men in the room fell over with nose bleeds.

One of the examiners that had yet to succumb to the rush of blood to the head stood up, "Alright, whatever one of you thought it was funny to make a bunshin like this-," he went to shove his hand through the illusion, but stopped dead when it met actual flesh.

"EEK!" the blonde cried, moving a hand to protect her chest, "Pervert!"

The ladies in the room glared bloody murder at the proctor that had dared harm one of their own kind. The shocked chūnin did good to cower back to his seat in the corner of the room with a muttered, "I'm sorry!" before he too collapsed from blood loss.

"Anyway," the tall godess-like blode glared at the man before turning back, "I dropped my purse outside and thought one came rolling through here," she reached into her easily accessible (not to mention large) 'natural pocket' and pulled out a little coin-purse. Another couple boys went down.

"Don't listen to her!" this time a scantily clad brunette walked through the door, "It's my coin!"

"No! It's mine!"

"Shut up it was mine!"

Suddenly the front of the room was filled with large-busted women with all different hair colors having a cat-fight over a coin. Women were crawling over the tables to get at each other and running across the room in dangerously tall high heels.

More guys joined the ones already on the floor.

"Ladies, ladies!" a smooth masculine voice broke through the noise, the women stopped, "Can't you see these people in here are taking a test?" A tall blond man walked through the open door and flipped his silky hair out of his face. His white shirt was open showing his rippling muscles and he smiled with perfectly white teeth.

The man turned his twinkling sky blue eyes on the room, girls started to join the men on the floor, "I'm sorry everyone for the trouble my ladies have caused. Say you're sorry girls."

"We're sorry," the women intoned.

"Hey look! I found it!" the first blonde woman bent down at a specific angle to pick up the golden coin, giving the head proctor ample view of her cleavage. Before her hand reached the floor however there was a kunai through it.

She disappeared into the cloud of smoke. There was a moment of stunned silence and all the women and the man burst into smoke, kunai in their places.

Ibiki replaced several unused kunai to his pouch and turned his gaze to the orange genin in the middle of the room. Granted Naruto was hiding under the desk doing a very good job of acting, but Ibiki knew better. Him and his division had been on the receiving end of several of the brats pranks and this had the orange Blonde written all over it. He quickly wrote out a seal for a non-lethal explosive tag and set it off in front of his desk, effectively waking everyone from their perverted thoughts.

"Get back to the test!" he barked. They all scrambled to do what he ordered.

"What just happened?"

"Who was that dreamy guy?"

"What that part of the test?"

"Silence!" the room quieted instantly. It was clear that no more talk on the subject was to be uttered, "You have ten minutes until the last question, I suggest you finish up quick."

There was the expected flurry of activity. Three more teams were disqualified in the next three minutes.

Naruto, ever the actor, didn't let her success show outwardly, but kept up her worried activities. Easily falling into her role she pulled at her hair and stared intently at the backside of her test paper and passed the last few minutes of the test with an inward smirk growing.

"Time's up!" Ibiki smirked, a creepy cross between a homicidal grin and a twisted sort of pleasure.

This was his favorite part.

.!.

"Well I'm not giving up and I don't care if I stay a genin forever!" Naruto shouted, slamming a hand down, "I'll still get stronger and become Hokage! Nothing you can say will scare me away!"

Her confidence settled over the room and they relaxed. Even if it was true and they could never advance in rank it certainly didn't mean that they could never advance in skill.

"Alright then," the scary man said, "To those of you remaining. I congratulate you on passing the first test."

A beat. Then:

"WHAT?"

"What about the tenth question!" Sakura, ever the scholar, was the first to mention the seemingly forgotten question.

"There was none!" Ibiki grinned, this time it actually looked like he was smiling, "Or you could say the choice to take it was the question."

"Then the rest of the test was pointless?" Temari from the back said frustrated.

"Oh no, that served its purpose. It was to test you information gathering skills. As many of you noticed the whole point was to cheat." He went on to explain how it would help them in the future to take the leap of faith an do something that could possibly harm them., but accomplish the mission they'd been given and went a little into his background. "You guys have made it through the first examination in the Chūnin Exams. I wish you luck."

"YEAH!" Naruto grinned from ear to ear as both her teammates felt the urge to slam their heads into the tables in front of them.

The window reacted as well. The genin closest to it jumped back in fear as a blur raced through the falling glass shards.

Suddenly there was another scantily clad woman (although not nearly as sexy as the ones before) standing in front of them and shouting, "I am the examiner for the second part! Mitarashi Anko! Now let's go!"

Crickets chirped in the background.

Ibiki chuckled, "Bad timing Anko."

"Ibiki! Seventy-eight! You left twenty-six teams!" the woman shouted.

"Yeah," Ibiki shrugged, "But there was a cat fight with twelve women in here bustier than you, they probably stayed just to see if they'd come back."

Anko, who was about to shout something no doubt obscene, paused, "What have you been smoking." Ibiki only laughed. Anko glared at him, "Whatever. At least my exam gets to cut your numbers by at least half!" she smirked sadistically at the genin again.

.!.

Ibiki walked around the room collecting tests, but stopped when he came to the first chūnin plant at the end of the second row. It was blank, "What?" quickly scanning the page he noted the name Uzumaki Naruto across the top.

Walking quickly down the row he picked up the paper he knew to be the blonde's. The plant's name was across the top and the answers all completed.

The prank hadn't been just a prank. Ibiki scowled and tried to think back to the cat fight. When could the blonde have had time to switch the papers with no one noticing?

"Heh… she's one sneaky kid," Ibiki smirked and realized that the women (-cough-clones-cough-) must have been the ones that did the switching. "Uzumaki Naru, hu'? You'll be one to look out for in the future…" Ibiki smiled to himself. She'd make a great infiltration specialist one day if he had any say in it.

* * *

><p>YAY! I'm on time today! (by half an hour… but still!)<p>

Thanks to GILLIGFAN for suggesting parts of the Kabuto scenes! I loved the idea! :)

Oh my goodness, I don't think you guys know the ridiculous amount of fun I had writing about Naruto's cheating skills in the first test. Haha! I figure she's got just a little more knowledge about subterfuge at this point than Naruto in the Manga so I went ahead and let her figure out the test.

And to Spiral Reflection: I know there's a despairing lack of Pakkun-y goodness! D: I want Pakkun!

So! Feel free to report to me your thoughts on the whole exam thing and where it's going, or maybe how to touch up some of my writing in places (cause I know it could use some work), or you can keep voting for your favorite pairings! OR you can say something simple, or not say anything at all and just leave a hit and visitor number on the little automatic counter. That works too. Whatever you want!

Until Monday!


	11. Chūnin Exam: Prank Mode

Chapter 10~ yay! Holy crap my lovely reviewers! I've never had such a response! There have been so many helpful and insightful reviews I can't even say how appreciative I am for the support! I love you all!

Just some fun facts: This story has 243 reviews, 42,442 hits (almost the answer to life, the universe, and everything), 280 favorites, and 394 alerts at this point in time. Thanks again to everyone who's reading!

* * *

><p>-<span>Stepping backwards for a moment in a 'kinda but not really' omake<span>-

Sasuke tensed the moment the doors opened and the woman stepped through. It wasn't due to the fact that the woman was the hottest thing he'd ever seen (he furiously worked to beat down the blush that threatened to overtake his face, he was an Uchiha after all and it wouldn't be good for his broody, uncaring reputation), but because she moved like a kunoichi.

Kunoichi could be deadly.

He kept close watch on her every move even as the two boys next to him went down in a spray of blood, this could just be a diversion for a surprise attack.

"No, it was my coin!" another woman had joined the fray and Sasuke's reaction instincts were turned up another notch (as well as his battle with the blush because, oh boy, were those women attractive!).

One woman (was that blue hair?) leapt over the row in front of him to go after a pinkette behind him and ended up smothering him with...

…and Sasuke hit the floor, a small trail of blood slowly dripping from his nose.

.!.

Sakura was about to jump up and attack the woman with pink hair (even though she secretly admired the color, not quite as light as hers but very attractive all the same) for blatantly going after Sasuke like that. All the women had training of some sort, the way they all moved so effortlessly in those ridiculously high heels proved it at least in part.

They were dangerous. Sakura opened her mouth to shout something when: "Ladies, ladies," broke through the escalating din. It was the sexiest voice she'd ever heard.

When the owner of the voice stepped through the door Inner Sakura went ballistic, 'WANT!'

'What about Sasuke?' the rational portion of her brain tried to reason with Inner Sakura.

It was no use, 'Who's Sasuke? LOOK at that man! The voice! The muscles! The hair!'

He turned his sky blue, sparkling eyes on the room, 'The EYES!' Inner Sakura swooned, regular Sakura did the same.

"I'm sorry everyone for the trouble my ladies had caused. Say you're sorry girls," he looked straight at her and winked…

…she was gone before she hit the floor.

.!.

"No Kakashi!" Kurenai shouted, hands moving in preparation for a debilitating genjutsu.

"You… can't… interfere!" Asuma added between grunts trying to hold his friend back.

"Must… go…!" Kakashi intoned as if in a trance. They'd seen all the Naruto clones transform into the buxom women and they'd all gasped in shock (for different reasons). But when the cat-fight started Kakashi couldn't control it any longer, he _needed_ to be in that room!

Asuma and Kurenai were doing their best to hold him back, but he'd been a jōnin for longer than both of them combined and they were quickly losing the battle.

"Oh Youthful Rival!" Gai called out dramatically, "If you so desire the unyouthful scene in the examination room I will give you one here!"

There was a poof and in the place of Gai stood a voluptuous Gai. Bowl cut bangs with large pig-tails on the sides of… her?... head. Same wide eyes, but -her?- eyebrows were smaller and more shapely. It was the green spandex and orange leg warmers that really did the trick though.

"GAH!" Kakashi backed away into the corner with his eyes clenched tight like a caged animal and Kurenai and Asuma curled into the fetal position with their hands over their eyes. Kakashi started muttering under his breath about being forever scared and maybe giving up on Icha Icha if he could just remove the dreadful scene he'd just witnessed from his mind.

"Youthful Rival?" Gai-ete questioned, Kakashi's muttering increased tenfold as he started twitching.

-okay, done with that! Onto the real start. Go!-

.!.

"_Ibiki! Seventy-eight! You left twenty-six teams!" the woman shouted._

"_Yeah," Ibiki shrugged, "But there was a cat fight with twelve women in here bustier than you, they probably stayed just to see if they'd come back."_

_Anko, who was about to shout something no doubt obscene, paused, "What have you been smoking." Ibiki only laughed. Anko glared at him, "Whatever. At least my exam gets to cut your numbers by at least half!" she smirked sadistically at the genin again._

"Follow me you whimps!" Anko's sadistic grin increased tenfold when she jumped out the window at top speed, certain that she'd thrown all the genin off and they would be scrambling to follow her to the destination of the second exam.

"Hey, Proctor Lady!" a voice directly behind her nearly made her slip off the rooftop she was currently jumping over.

She swore loudly before she turned to face the voice, "What?" she snarled.

"Where are we going?" Naruto quipped with a smirk, Anko could tell that the blonde knew she had been caught off guard.

"Your worst nightmare," Anko's smirk now replied Naruto's, but to her surprise the threat didn't make the blonde's face even twitch.

In a calm voice, almost eerily so as if she was discussing the weather, she replied, "Oh… I'm sure it won't be that bad. My worst nightmare is something I wouldn't wish on anyone." Anko's thought process ground to a halt when she recognized the look in the bright blue eyes of the young girl in front of her. The look of someone who knows the pain of being completely alone

_Sensei…_ Anko swore again as her thoughts took a dangerous turn to the past, forcing herself pack to the present she spoke and her trademark sneer overtook her face again, "Brat."

Naruto grinned and leisurely placed her hands behind her head in a relaxed position. The other genin were catching up now and Anko suddenly realized something.

"How the heck did you catch up to me so fast? You're supposedly the dead last of the academy!"

Naruto's grin widened to blinding proportions, "That will remain a trade secret," in mocking jest she playfully stuck out her tongue (honestly, though, you don't pull pranks on ANBU headquarters without having, or developing, the skills to get out of windows and other such unofficial exits, such as air ducts, quickly and on demand).

"Heh, I like you kid."

.!.

"This is training ground 44, otherwise known as The Forest of Death," the fearful silence made Anko giggle like a school girl, "And you'll all soon find out why!"

"HA!" Naruto shouted, "If you think some old forest is like my worst nightmare Proctor Lady you'll have to try harder than that!"

Anko laughed, "Oh I knew I liked you!" In an instant she was behind the genin with a kunai to the throat, "Too bad ones like you are the first to go," she whispered threateningly, "I'd love to… _play_ with you sometime," in an almost languid manner she pressed the razor-sharp kunai to the skin on Naruto's neck and let a thin sliver of blood run down to the tip. With a smirk at the blonde's horrified face she licked the throwing knife clean, "if you survive."

Naruto shivered at the tone of voice, but stood her ground and returned the vicious smirk with one of her own.

Anko's face changed back to a normal look, "Oh yeah! I need you all to sign these waivers," she pulled out a large stack of papers from somewhere on her person ("Where did those come from?" Naruto shouted), "There will be deaths in this portion of the exam and while I would love to kill you all myself I'm not allowed. So if you sign this and you die it won't be my fault and then I won't get in trouble and then I won't get assigned to pull door duty for three months again."

"You've forgotten to have groups sign the waivers before?" a brave genin dared ask what they were all thinking.

"No!" Anko replied cheerily, "I've killed them before," the atmosphere darkened considerably, "Needless to say the higher-ups didn't like it. Not good for international relations or something like that," she made a hand motion as if to wave it off like it was no big deal. Several of the faces before her paled, "Anyway. I'll explain the rules and you can all sign the waiver. Got it? Good," without pausing to see if they actually had understood she rolled right on and continued with the rules of the exam.

"Alright! Just for recap the things that will disqualify you are: One. You do not reach the tower with both scrolls in the time limit. And two. Teams that lose a teammate or one of their teammates is killed. You will stay in the forest all five days and with will not look in your scrolls. Any questions?" several hands went up but she ignored them completely, "Good! Now sign your waivers and get your scrolls over there!" she pointed to the small shack with the curtain. A chūnin stood in the doorway.

"Wait! What about-!"

Anko happily cut off the question, "the exam starts in forty-five minutes, I suggest you hurry if you all want your scrolls so you can get to your gate on time," she laughed sadistically as the teams practically mobbed the chūnin she'd handed the stack of waivers to in their attempt to get started, "Oh yeah! One more word of advice!" they paused in the activities, intent on hearing any piece of information that could help them pass, "Don't die."

.!.

The whistle blew and the chūnin in front of team 7 nodded to them and opened the gate.

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto pumped her fists and then unsurprisingly charged headfirst into the forest.

"Naruto!"

She quickly vaulted into a small clearing and graciously took the head-pounding that Sakura dished out for her.

"We need a plan," Naruto said seriously, making Sakura pause in her ranting about how she needed to be more responsible and not run off without her team.

"A plan…?" Sakura was floored for a moment that Naruto would be the first to suggest it.

"Yes a plan!" Naruto sighed, "I thought you were the smart one here, Sakura-chan! First off we have to have some way of telling if we're all still us because people might try to impersonate one or more of us to get our scroll. Secondly we have to figure out an effective decoy in case we are attacked outright with several backup escape routes. Thirdly we need to head to the river and make out way to the tower as we fourthly set up several traps for other teams to be able to take their scrolls. Now to do this we need to know what kinds of things are in this forest and what materials we have between us to use," Naruto kept going while her teammates stared on in shock and awe. Unbeknownst to them she was in full-on Pranking Mode™.

"Who put you in charge?" Sasuke asked with a slight glare at being outdone by the _Dobe_ of all people.

"I didn't see anyone else taking charge," Naruto stuck out her tongue, "besides! I've already got several plans in the making here! Do you guys remember that one time in our third year at the academy when I got Iruka-sensei upside-down in the middle of taijutsu practice for that one prank?"

The gears in Sakura's head started to turn, "Oh! I remember that! You think you can do that here?"

Naruto nodded easily, "Piece of cake! All I have to do is modify it a little to compensate for three people instead of one and then rig it with kunai or something instead of paint-filled water balloons and-," she snapped her fingers, "instant trap."

"You never did the lessons on traps, Dobe," Sasuke pointed out, he remembered because that was one of the many points he'd teased the blonde about in the academy.

"Oh yeah!" Sakura added, "Iruka-sensei would always call you inside for something when we all went out to practice setting traps! How can we know this'll work?"

Naruto glowered petulantly at her teammates, "Honestly you guys! You seriously think I can't put together a simple trap like this after all the pranks you've seen me do? Iruka-sensei just didn't want my awesome skills to kill all my classmates," she smirked (Iruka, in fact, had taken her out of the lessons because he knew she had proficient skill in the area and used the time to teach her something more useful, like reviewing chakra manipulation and the basic academy taijutsu that she'd needed help on).

Sasuke frowned, Sakura looked concerned but eventually she saw the logic in the slightly exaggerated statement, "Alright, you can do that as long as me and Sasuke supervise to make sure, you never did take the lessons after all," Naruto continued to pout, but Sakura ignored her, "Okay," she pulled out a small map of the Forest of Death, the circular forest had the one large river running right through the middle, "What you said about following the river was a good idea but we have to be careful because a lot of other teams will have the same idea. We don't want to get ambushed ourselves."

"Easy!" Naruto replied, she was grinning from ear to ear, this test was just her style, "I can come up with some great camouflage for us. No one will be able to spot us!"

Sakura hesitated, "Uh… Naruto, you realize that you're wearing bright orange, right? That'll never blend in."

Naruto's grin fell, "I knew you guys didn't pay much attention to me in the academy or while we've been a team, but honestly! Didn't finding out I was a girl teach you anything? Look underneath the underneath. I wear orange to train myself," (also it was the only thing the shopkeepers would sell her), "I was wearing bright orange when I painted the Hokage monument and no one caught me until after I was done. Does that tell you something?"

"But-!" Sakura was starting to feel almost as foolish as when their teammates gender was revealed, "you've never told us that!" it was a weak excuse and she knew it.

Naruto's face fell further into a sad frown, "You never told me that you were really trying hard to keep up with Sasuke and me so you do extra studying about the things we learn to really understand how to use it. And Sasuke didn't tell us that when he goes home he does at least three hours of extra practice on his own so he can come back and do it perfectly. Neither of you told me those things, but I noticed every time you both grew while we were practicing together."

Sakura didn't know what to say to that, Sasuke turned away.

Naruto sighed, she was used to people underestimating her but she didn't expect the pain of having it come from her own teammates, "We should go," she said shortly, "I can hear someone coming."

Sure enough when Sakura listened she could hear the sound of three people moving through the trees who obviously had never tried to move stealthily through a forest before. She stood and made a decision for the team, "Naruto, I think you should be in charge this time around. We haven't given you enough credit so far and you seem to know what you're doing in this sort of situation so…" she turned hesitantly to Sasuke, almost afraid that he wouldn't agree.

Sasuke turned back from the direction of the incoming team, "Don't mess this up, Dobe," he almost smiled, but as soon as they thought they saw it his face was a blank mask again.

It took a moment, but Naruto suddenly realized what her teammates were doing and a wide grin spread across her face, the earlier pain completely disappearing, "Great! Come with me and we'll get some camouflage!" she darted silently into the side of the clearing and Sakura and Sasuke were surprised that the orange almost completely vanished into the foliage around it. They moved quickly to follow lest they lose it completely.

.!.

Sasuke and Sakura tugged lightly at the cloaks Naruto had handed them, they were made out of woven vines with native leaves and plants tied into the mix.

"It's summer time," Naruto was explaining, "So that's why the vines are woven so tightly," she was working on her own cloak of plants, "in the spring you would wear bright colored clothes and weave a little looser to create the image of the flowers and in the fall you would wear muted browns and oranges and use dying vines to blend in with the changing colors. But you have to be careful because if their too dried out it rustles unnaturally when you move and you have to move specifically to keep them from giving you away."

"How do you know all this?" Sakura asked.

Naruto paused, looking up from her work, "Mostly I figured it out myself when I was younger, but after Iruka-sensei saw I was pretty good at it he gave me some extra lessons," with a quick intricate knot she unfurled her own cloak of green, "the plants I wove into the vines are ones that are found all over so it doesn't look strange when we get to different areas of the forest, sometimes there are plants that grow only in certain locations."

Her teammates were amazed at the amount of detail that she was giving to these cloaks, Sasuke gave the green one more glance before throwing it over himself. He nodded when he noticed they were malleable enough to get to his weapons and attack quickly if needed.

Sakura nodded as well and smiled, "What now Naruto?"

"Our best chance of finding the scroll we need will be near the tower," she pulled out the map again and pointed to the center, "The teams with both scrolls will all be heading there so if we're able to get one there then we know they'll have the Heaven scroll."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded and both moved to go toward the river.

"Wait! I haven't told you guys how to move in these things yet!" Naruto scrambled to roll up the map and flip her leafy cloak on at the same time to follow after them.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "We know how to move silently through the trees," he commented.

"I didn't mean noise," Naruto replied, waving his glare away with a wave of her hand, "I meant move. Nothing in the forest moves in a straight line, so we can't either. If you just go walking along like you own the place, even if your completely silent about it, then the camouflage will be for nothing."

"That makes sense," Sakura nodded, "So we have to move like part of the forest."

"Exactly," Naruto grinned.

"Can we go now?" Sasuke frowned at them.

"Oh! Yeah, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura complied easily, "Let's go!"

They followed along the river to the center of the forest all day and passed several teams who had the same idea. They weren't noticed and they all decided it was best not to make trouble before they were prepared to make trouble so they stopped about an hour's walk away from the tower just as it was nearing nightfall.

"This'll be a good spot," Naruto nodded to herself as she wandered around the area, "We can start setting up here."

"Good!" Sakura proclaimed, "I've had to go to the bathroom for the last two hours! I'll be right back."

"Okay Sakura-chan, we'll start without you," Naruto said absentmindedly as she waved over her shoulder while pulling out an unusually large amount of ninja wire.

"How much do you expect to use?" Sasuke asked incredulously as Sakura left the clearing.

"It can never hurt to be prepared!" Naruto shot back with a glare, "Now help me set up, Jerk. We're putting the kunai in with this wire and…" Sasuke rolled his eyes and tuned out her babbling, keeping a wary eye out on the forest around them. Just because they had camouflage cloaks didn't mean there was no one following them. He'd had the nagging feeling that someone was watching them for the last few hours.

"…and then we'll use this boomerang to…" Naruto was still going when he tried to start paying attention so he started ignoring her again and just worked on setting up the trap.

* * *

><p>Special thanks to kitsuneluvah who suggested the beginning omake that wasn't quite and omake… :D<p>

I'm so sorry to everyone for the very very late update. But life got in the way and real life has to take precedence over internet life or everything falls to pieces. Sorry to everyone! But especially with school back the updates will be more random and spread out like this cause I'm taking 15 credit hours and still working three jobs (it will be the death of me, I swear!) XD I'll probably move to about a monthly update schedule until next summer, maybe more depending on how much the muses require me to write, but I won't abandon you all! Oh, and just so you're all aware: I didn't proof read this one at all, I figure if there's anything glaringly wrong with it you'll all point it out, right? Right! 8]

So tell me about your outrage on the subject! Or you can talk about what you thought about Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi's reaction to Naru's cheating (thanks again to kitsuneluvah, without whom you would not have received such a scene), or maybe Naru's and Anko's little bonding moment, or perhaps you feel content with just marking this as a favorite or alert! I don't mind either way!

See you next Month!


	12. Chūnin Exam: Creepy Girly Man

Chapter 11! And yes, it is now October and there was no September chapter! I'm sorry.

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><p>"<em>Good!" Sakura proclaimed, "I've had to go to the bathroom for the last two hours! I'll be right back."<em>

"_Okay Sakura-chan, we'll start without you," Naruto said absentmindedly as she waved over her shoulder while pulling out an unusually large amount of ninja wire._

"_How much do you expect to use?" Sasuke asked incredulously as Sakura left the clearing._

"_It can never hurt to be prepared!" Naruto shot back with a glare, "Now help me set up, Jerk. We're putting the kunai in with this wire and…" Sasuke rolled his eyes and tuned out her babbling, keeping a wary eye out on the forest around them. Just because they had camouflage cloaks didn't mean there was no one following them. He'd had the nagging feeling that someone was watching them for the last few hours._

"…_and then we'll use this boomerang to…" Naruto was still going when he tried to start paying attention so he started ignoring her again and just worked on setting up the trap._

.!.

After only a few minutes of setting up Sakura came back and immediately moved to help Naruto, "I have to admit," she spoke after a moment, "I didn't know you had it in you, Naruto."

Naruto looked up for a second from the wire she was tying to a tree, and in a normal voice replied, "Not a lot of people do, Sakura-chan," then a blinding smile lit her face, "It's all part of my master plan!"

Sakura, who was on the verge of feeling guilty with the first statement, relaxed, "What else do you need me to do?"

"You could rig some kunai," Naruto smiled and pointed to the pile of knives sitting next to her, "We need three on the north end, two in the southeast, one rigged from above, three more in the west, and two from the southwest set to go off at different intervals."

"To keep them guessing where the next one's coming from?"

"Exactly!" Naruto grinned, "Maybe you can come with me sometime to prank some Jōnin next time, Sakura-chan, you're getting the hang of this!"

Right on the verge of turning her teammate down outright, Sakura noticed something from the corner of her eye, "Where are you going, Sasuke-kun?"

"Bathroom," the only boy grunted.

Blood crept into Sakura's cheeks, "Ah… okay, see you soon."

Naruto blinked at the exchange and wondered why Sakura was embarrassed by it, but shrugged and finished the portion of the trap she was working on. She noted that Sakura was not nearly as quick as she was in rigging the kunai at the right angles so she picked up a few of them next. This part had to be done professionally, really. You had to accurately predict where the unfortunate victim would move once caught in the trap and, because Naruto didn't really want to kill anyone, aim for areas that would only hit non-critical locations or simply scare them to the location that was required for the final phase.

It was almost twenty minutes later when Naruto was pulled from her musings by Sakura, "Naruto! I think we should go look for Sasuke-kun, he's been gone a long time."

Naruto blinked, "eh? Oh yeah, he's not here."

"WHAT? How could you just forget about Sasuke-kun!.?"

Naruto rubbed the back of her head and shrugged, "I guess I'm just used to ignoring him, he's usually quiet anyway."

Sakura huffed and started to climb out of the tree she'd been in (Naruto had ordered her up there to do something ten minutes ago and still hadn't told her what she'd needed to do), "Well just because you don't care doesn't mean I don't! I'm going to go find him!"

Before the pinkette could get out of the tree the boy in question walked back into sight.

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Hey Sasuke," Naruto said distractedly, waving a hand without much interest.

"Sasuke-kun! What took you so long? I was starting to get worried," Sakura twittered from the tree.

Sasuke raised a skeptical eyebrow at her before rolling his eyes, "What do you need me to do now, Naruto?"

Naruto stopped working and turned to stare full-force at Sasuke, "What did you say?"

Sasuke glared back, "I asked what you needed me to do."

Sakura, noticing the tension in the air, tried to play peacemaker, "Naruto? Sasuke-kun? What's going on?"

Without warning Naruto attacked their male teammate.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screamed as the Uchiha clumsily evaded the unexpected blow, "Naruto! What do you think you're doing?" with a quick motion Sakura was on the ground, fully intent to give the blonde a piece of her mind, but upon seeing the completely serious look on her face (one of those little things she'd unconsciously focus on in an attempt to not be fooled again) her outer arguments quieted.

Even inner-Sakura stopped arguing when she heard the definitely-not-Sasuke voice that now came out of Sasuke's body, "Well, well, well, I was told you were the dumb one in the group. You're more than you seem, Uzumaki Naruto… heh… in more ways than one," the Sasuke look-alike smirked (it was a much more evil smirk than either girl had ever seen on the boy's face) and then he was surrounded by smoke, "How could you tell I wasn't your _precious_ teammate?" the way he said the word 'precious' gave Sakura the chills. It was sarcastic and disregarding at the same time, and as if he would have just loved to kill off said teammate just to watch them squirm. The thought of Sasuke dead made her mind go into panic-mode.

Naruto's serious face fell and she stared at the revealed grass-nin like he was an idiot, "Sasuke doesn't call me by my name like that, stupid," they stood in a stalemate for a moment more while the infiltrator laughed. Naruto made a quick decision, "Sakura-chan!" the sudden call snapped the pinkette from her over-active-imagined panic, "Go find Sasuke, I'll hold him off here until you two get back!"

Sakura didn't need any more prompting (and only later would realize that she really shouldn't have left her teammate all alone to fight an unknown enemy… but this was Sasuke-kun they were talking about!).

Naruto waited until she'd gone out of sight, "How long have you been following us?"

The grass-genin smirked, "I only found you here a few hours ago, Sasuke-kun was quite skilled in unseen movement, as he proved when I found him a few minutes ago."

"What did you do to Sasuke?"

"Heh, let's just say he's currently… indisposed at the moment," the creepy girly-man (as Naruto had so fondly dubbed) smirked, "But more importantly, you can't do anything about it."

"Don't underestimate me!" Naruto was moving again as if to attack, but when the enemy nin dodged her easily she kept going and pulled one of the triggers for the trap they'd been working on for the last several hours.

A grid-work of ninja-wire lifted up from the forest floor, making any sort of footwork difficult. The creepy-girly grass nin stumbled a bit, and quickly struggled to regain balance, "Too bad I watched you set this up all day," he commented dryly as he found his footing.

Naruto could only watch helplessly as he completely evaded everything thrown at him.

.!.

"Saskue-kun!" Sakura called out blindly to the forest around her, looking for their lost teammate.

"ARGH!" a scream from her left made her stop in her tracks.

"Sasuke-kun!" she knew it was him. It had to be. The closer she got the more pain she could hear in the screaming, "Sasuke-kun!"

When she finally broke through the trees and bushes she finally found him. Sasuke was on his side, curled in a fetal position and clawing the ground hard enough to draw blood from his fingertips while his other hand was clamped to the side of his neck.

"Sasuke-kun!" he seemed to just register her voice before another wave of pain overcame him, he didn't cry out this time though, "What happened?" she knelt by his side tried to help him sit up. He didn't react to her touch.

He shook his head and he started to pass out, but just as his eyes got hazy he seemed to realize something, "N-Naru-to?" Sakura had to strain to figure out what he was trying to say as he seemed to succumb to more pain.

"Someone came to our hideout disguised as you, Naruto's back there fighting him now," she explained hesitantly.

"NO!" Sasuke, suddenly seeming to get strength back, pushed himself from her hold and attempted to stand, "He's too… strong," he managed to get out, "She can't… face… him alone."

It was here that Sakura realized she really shouldn't have left their teammate alone, "What should we do?"

Sasuke shuddered in her arms, he had managed to get to his knees in his attempt to stand then she'd had to catch him before he fell again, and his hand clamped down harder on his neck, "… help… her…" he managed to get out before he went completely limp. His hand fell away from his neck and Sakura noted a strange looking bruise-like thing.

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Sakura-san!" the sound of her name made her whip around and pull a kunai out. Lee stood behind her, "Sakura-san! What's wrong?"

"Lee-san!" she nearly cried with relief, "We have to help Naruto!"

"Where is Naruto-san?" Lee's worried eyes turned from Sakura to Sasuke and back.

"She's back there!" Sakura pointed, "She's fighting the guy that did this to Sasuke-kun!"

"I'll go!" Lee immediately volunteered, "after all I promised you both I would protect you with my life!"

"Thank you Lee-san!" Sakura bowed her head, "I'll be right behind you, I have to help Sasuke-kun first."

"I would prefer if you stay away from such a battle, Sakura-san," Lee voiced, but before Sakura could protest he continued, "But I understand the need to protect someone precious. So I will see you there?"

Sakura nodded, "I'll see you soon," the Green Beast turned to go, "and Lee-san… thank you," Lee grinned and sunlight glinted off his white teeth before he once more turned to go.

"Alright, Sasuke-kun, we have to get you someplace safe," Sakura muttered to herself and lifted the boy onto her back with a bit of difficulty.

She worked hurriedly to move back in the general direction she'd left Naruto and to find a good spot to hide Sasuke where no one else could find him.

"Eh? Forehead?"

Sakura nearly dropped Sasuke in her surprise, "I-Ino?"

"SASUKE-KUN!" Ino screamed, running at Sakura full-speed, "What did you do to him?" she accused bitterly and attempted to pry the Uchiha from her back.

"Ino!" Shikamaru called, "What are you doing?" He and Chōji were right behind her.

"I didn't do anything, Ino-pig!" Sakura glared back, "He was attacked! And now the same guy that beat him is going after Naruto! I have to get him someplace safe and go help my teammate!"

The declaration made the Blonde pause, "What? Someone was really strong enough to beat him?"

"Yes! And now he's after Naruto!" Sakura made to move away, intent on getting done what she needed to do.

"We'll take Sasuke-kun!" Ino suggested instantly.

Shikamaru groaned and muttered something suspiciously like, "troublesome woman, always doing things without thinking it through."

Sakura backed away protectively.

"No, think about it!" Ino protested, actually speaking in a calm voice to try and ease Sakura's fear, "You can't just leave him in a bush somewhere and you need to go help… _Naruto_," Sakura glared at the way her former friend said Naruto's name, "So you can leave him with us and we'll look after him while you go."

"I…" Sakura looked helplessly at Shikamaru and Chōji.

Shikamaru shrugged and Chōji offered a kind smiled through his chip consumption, "Don't worry, Sakura," the Akimichi offered, "We'll stay right around here and watch after him."

"What a drag," Shikamaru commented, "You're actually going along with this Chōji?"

"Yes," the boy replied, "But I think you should go with Sakura to help Naruto. Me and Ino can stay here and keep hidden."

Shikamaru groaned and leaned his head back to look at the sky while his hands found their way deep into his pockets.

"I… thanks guys," Sakura gently lowered Sasuke to the ground. Ino was hovering over him like a hawk over a mouse-infested field, "You don't have to come, Shikamaru," she also noted, "Watching Sasuke-kun for me is more than enough. Hopefully I'll be back soon."

"Shikamaru," whenever Chōji used that tone of voice on him he knew nothing good could come with arguing, the Nara sighed.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru murmured, Chōji nodded thanks, "Wait up, Sakura."

The Pinkette gave him a grateful look. He nodded silently in response, and then they were off.

.!.

Naruto gasped for air as the creepy girly man held her by her neck to the tree. She clawed weakly at his hands.

"This can be your punishment for thinking you could hold me off alone," the grass nin grinned wickedly, and leaned in close to hiss in her ear, "_Little girl_," his long tongue scraped up the side of her face and she shuddered at the contact. She wanted to start screaming and kicking, but with such a small amount of oxygen reaching her lungs at that point she didn't have the energy.

The grass-nin smirked as he pulled away slightly, "I think I'm going to enjoy experimenting with you… just like I did your _precious_ little teammate."

The mention of Sasuke shook Naruto from the threatening darkness at the corner of her vision, "What… did you do… to Sasuke?" she choked out with as good a glare as she could muster.

"It would be wonderful if he survives," Naruto saw red. The grass nin backed away in surprise, "You're the host of-," he was cut off by the timely arrival of a foot making contact with his face.

"Attacking a defenseless woman against a tree," the new voice filtered in through Naruto's rage-induced haze, snapping her out of it to focus on the newcomer, "What manner of un-youthful behavior is this?" Fuzzy brows stood protectively in front of where Naruto had slid to the ground at the base of the tree when Creepy-girly man had let go of her neck.

"Who are you?" the enemy nin glared from where he was rising back to his feet, he had a hand to his cheek and wiped the blood away from the corner of his mouth.

"I am the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha! Rock Lee!" Lee gave the traditional Good "Gai" Pose (© Maito Gai, used with permission).

Naruto, who was feeling much better now that she could breath and was once again felt like she was in control of her actions, suppressed a shudder at the mention of the ridiculous name the Fuzzy Brows had claimed for himself, "Thanks, Fuzzy Brows."

Lee grinned at her and his teeth sparkled white in the sun.

"You'd do well to learn to not turn your back on your opponent," and then Lee was flying across the clearing and smashing into a tree, a large snake's tail replaced his image in front of Naruto.

At this point Naruto had regained her breath as well as her strength and multiplied herself several times over in preparation for an attack, "What did you do to Sasuke!" she asked angrily as she started her charge, "You never answered me."

"And I don't plan to."

"Naruto-san! Behind you!" Naruto only had a fraction of a second to prepare herself after Lee's frantic shout to turn and spot the massive snake that had easily blasted the boy out of the way before it swallowed her whole.

I took her a moment to fully realize.

"WHAT!" she shouted, but her sound died only a few feet from her in the esophagus of the large snake and she used up a large amount of the little remaining oxygen. She started to panic from the lack of air again, 'gotta' make more space!' her mind screamed.

So she did the only thing she could think of to make more room around her.

The snake exploded from the inside-out as a hundred or so Naruto's burst out of it, drenching the surrounding forrest in snake guts.

A moment later the remains of the snake burst into a clean white smoke.

"What the..!.?" she heard a lazy exclaim.

"Naruto!"

"Sakura-chan! Shikamaru!" Naruto turned to her and suddenly realized she was in a different part of the forest than she had been before the snake swallowed her, "We have to get back to Bushy-brows! Come on!" without pausing to explain she charged back in the direction where she just… _knew_ that the green-clad genin would be, but if you'd asked her to explain how she knew, she couldn't have told you.

"Wait! Naruto!"

"Troublesome!"

But the only thought on the blonde's mind was the genin who had come to save her earlier. Not many people were willing to go out of their way to even talk to her, let alone fight for her, and anyone who did instantly earned a place in her good graces.

"This guy's strong!" she called back behind to where she knew Sakura and Shikamaru were following ('Wait! Where did he come from?' her mind thought momentarily before just as quickly forgetting), "We need a plan and we need one fast!"

* * *

><p>Haha! You all have no idea how fun it is to procrastinate everything I'm doing to write this story (even if I can only manage it about an hour a week)... Of course it gives me major problems when I have an assignment due that I haven't even started… or have to go to work… or have to go to the other work… or have to go to the other other work… All I can say is that you're all really lucky I love writing this story so much otherwise you wouldn't be hearing from me all school year! XD<p>

BUT! No matter how busy I get I love to read your reviews! So please do keep leaving comments and ideas for plot holes to fix and or scenes you would like to see! You never know what may end up in the story ;)

So tell me how you feel about this chapter, or maybe tell me about how you thought the modified Pedimaru (uh… wait… that would be Orochimaru…. Huh, go figure…) fight went, or about Sasuke's reactions to it, or the modified meeting of the teams. :) I'd love to hear about it! Or I'd also love to see the little counter on the favs go up, or maybe the alerts counter. Or even the hits counter. But I'd love to hear your thoughts even more!

Until next time!


	13. Chūnin Exam: Second Test End

Hey all! Chapter 12 here! Also I went back and edited a few things that weren't very clear. Special thanks to _Tempest S._, _EDelta88_, and _Lander Blazer_.

* * *

><p>"<em>Wait! Naruto!" Sakura called after her teammate.<em>

"_Troublesome!" Shikamaru muttered, sighing as he had to rush to catch up to the blonde and pinkette._

_But the only thought on the Naruto's mind was the genin who had come to save her earlier. Not many people were willing to go out of their way to even talk to her, let alone fight for her, and anyone who did instantly earned a place in her good graces._

"_This guy's strong!" she called back behind to where she knew Sakura and Shikamaru were following ('Wait! Where did he come from?' her mind thought momentarily.), "We need a plan and we need one fast!"_

_.!._

"So the last Uchiha and the Kyūbi's container," Orochimaru muttered to himself and worked out the slight kink in his jaw that had formed when the green-clad monstrosity had kicked him. The boy had been faster and stronger than he'd been predicting (and was still in the bushes now, only just starting to recover from a returning blow). Overall, however, this had been a rather productive encounter.

He'd gone after the teammates of the Uchiha because Kabuto had observed the subtle protectiveness the boy showed over the two girls. He had, of course, tested the theory with the boy first by threatening them while he toyed with him and was rewarded with a rather unexpected advance in the boy's Sharingan. Oh, Orochimaru shivered at the prospect, he was the _perfect_ target.

So instead of simply killing them he'd decided to play with them for a bit before he did, so the anger of the boy could be seeded even deeper. A smirk worked its way onto his face, oh yes he would most definitely have to follow up on this line of thinking.

Speaking of the Uchiha's teammates, there they were again, along with a new boy (really though, where were they coming from? Wasn't this exam meant to test _team_ abilities?). Oh what to do? He inwardly rolled his eyes. He'd completed the task he'd set out for (the Uchiha boy was marked) and at this moment in time he was rather pressed for time because the proctors should have found the bodies he'd left behind.

While he would love to torture the brats a bit more he needed more to stay low-key or his invasion plan could be compromised (now really was not the time to be fighting the Kyūbi host, he was lucky she'd snapped out of her rage… but something would still have to be done to keep her in check).

In less than an instant he was gone without a trace.

.!.

Shikamaru's eye twitched in annoyance. Apparently a 'plan' to Naruto meant 'charge in blindly without talking it over and expect everyone else to do the same' and there was no reasoning with the blonde idiot.

"Naruto! Hold on!" Sakura called quickly, "You said we needed a plan!"

"We don't have time to stop!" Naruto called back, "Fuzzy brow's needs our help!"

And so Shikamaru was forced to fall back on a 'go with whatever Naruto was doing and try think something up on the fly' kind of plan. He hated working like this.

What a drag.

"This is it!" Naruto called, they all braced themselves for what they would see when the tree line broke, she skidded to a stop in the middle of the small clearing, "This is definitely it, where is he?"

The open spot of ground was devoid of any sign of another person, but still clearly held signs of a recent struggle.

"Don't let your guard down." Shikamaru warned slowly, "They could still be around."

Naruto didn't seem to hear him and rushed off into some bushes, "Fuzzy Brows!"

"Naruto-san?" Sakura visibly signed with relief as she heard the obviously male voice, Lee was okay!

"What happened, Fuzzy Brows?" Naruto asked with a tilt of her head to the other genin as she helped him stand up from behind a bush and into view of Shikamaru and Sakura.

"The most worthy opponent disappeared soon after you were swallowed by the snake, he hit me powerfully and I was only just waking up when he simply vanished!"

"What team was he from?" Shikamaru asked, studying the signs of the fight in the trees around him, putting the pieces together.

"He was from Grass, I think," Sakura replied, "Why?"

"So I know who to avoid," he replied lazily, turning back and sticking his hands in his pockets, "Meeting this guy again would be a drag if they gave Sasuke so much trouble."

Sakura huffed and crossed her arms, reminding the shadow-user distinctly of Ino when she was about to start into a rant about how lazy he was, etc., etc…

"Wait! Sasuke!" Naruto turned back from her conversation about the fight with Lee, "What about Sasuke? Did you find him? Is he okay? What happened?"

"Calm down Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed and lightly whacked the girl over the back of the head, snapping her out of her panic, "I found him, he was hurt and he fell unconscious just after I found him, but we left him with Ino and Chōji so he's safe."

Shikamaru studied the team members in front of him and their interactions. Something had definitely changed between Sakura and Naruto since their first mission out of the village, but he'd never really had a chance to study it until now.

Sakura wouldn't have just lightly tapped the blonde before; she would have full-blown knocked him to the ground. She also probably wouldn't have responded to those questions so calmly either.

Sasuke was always the pinkette's first concern, as far as the Nara could tell from their academy days, but now he could see a concern for Naruto that didn't quite fit the definition 'annoying teammate' anymore in his eyes. There was respectfulness and sadness and a connection that had never been there before.

"Naru-san!" Lee called out, "I must be back to my own teammates, they will be wondering where I have gone. Take care of yourself, Naru-san, Sakura-san!" and with that he vanished into the surrounding trees.

"Don't call me that, Fuzzy Brows!" Naruto mock-shouted while grinning as she waved after him.

That was another thing, Shikamaru lost himself further to his thoughts, there was something about Naruto that made people act differently… wait… he blinked… Naru? That sounded like a strangely feminine version of the blond's name. It suddenly thought of a conversation he'd heard before between Asuma-sensei and Kakashi-sensei, just before the exam.

_-flashback-_

"_Kakashi!" Shikamaru eyed his teacher lazily as the older man sat up and waved at the orange-book-holding jōnin that was walking by._

_The silver-haired man turned and waved lazily, Shikamaru looked back to the clouds, appreciating the lethargic sentiments._

"_My Old Man said they figured out the reason you're four hours late," so Kakashi was late for a reason, not that Shikamaru particularly cared, but he filed it away in his brain like so many other things he'd heard._

"_Yeah. She did."_

_Asuma paused, "Really?"_

"_Yup, it was all her, though I don't think any of them have actually figured it out."_

_Asuma laughed, "I don't doubt it! I'll bet Sasuke was ticked!" ah, so they were talking about Kakashi's team. Sakura must've done something Sasuke couldn't. Anyone doing something like that could set the other boy off, Shikamaru sighed, that kind of behavior was so troublesome._

"_She goaded him into a race almost instantly," Kakashi replied._

_Shikamaru paused, that didn't sound like Sakura…_

"_I'll bet she won, too!"_

"_Not quite, but her potential is hardly even touched in that regard, as you well know."_

_Shikamaru frowned, he had never thought of Sakura as particularly fast… There was a puzzle unfolding before him, he could feel it, but he couldn't place the picture that was appearing._

"_Don't I know it," he could hear Asuma grinning. Shikamaru frowned, who were they talking about exactly? "Oh! Shikamaru, get up! We're late for team practice!"_

"_Troublesome," he murmured, but obediently sat up and began to stand._

"_My pops sure knows how to pick 'em, eh, Kakashi?" Asuma made one more comment before they set off._

"_Hokage-sama certainly does," he acknowledged, waving a hand goodbye already absorbed back into his book._

_-end flashback-_

With a start the conversation suddenly made sense to him. Sakura wouldn't goad Sasuke into a race, but Naruto would. Sakura, as far as he could tell, really didn't have an innate disposition for speed, Naruto did. Asuma-sensei was not particularly close to Sakura, but he was to Naruto.

The Nara stared at Naruto in a new light as the last puzzle piece fell into place with startling clarity. The way the jōnin-sensei treated her, the way Shino acted around her, it also explained the reason for why Sakura was now treating her differently. Watching the exchange he noted how her face really did look feminine, but he'd never thought to think of it that way, with long eyelashes and high cheek bones still a bit round from baby fat.

"Naruto," Sakura and Naruto turned to look at him, "Are you a girl?" He raised an eyebrow at Sakura's protective stiffening as she instantly responded to his words.

Naruto's reaction was something he hadn't been expecting, "Yeah… why?" it was so… _Naruto_, he didn't know how to respond right away.

He shrugged, "No reason," he replied lazily, but mentally filed away the unknowingly given fact that she hadn't been actively trying to deceive people, "It's troublesome but we came all this way for no reason, we'd better head back so you guys can get Sasuke."

No more was said on the matter, but Shikamaru felt a sudden respect for the dead last that he hadn't before. If _he'd_ taken this long to figure out the truth… maybe the 'dead last' wasn't as unintelligent as she was made out to seem.

.!.

"Ino," Chōji crunched on some chips, "What are you doing?"

Ino didn't even pause as she answered, "Going though Sasuke-kun's pockets," she rummaged around in his short's pocket for a moment longer and then reached over him to get into the other one.

"Why?"

"Obviously Sasuke is the strongest one in Forehead's group," she replied as she moved to his weapons pouch, being careful of sharp objects, "they would have given him the scroll to hold on to because Naruto's to stupid to keep track of it and Sakura would freak out if she had to carry it. Therefore Sasuke must have it."

"That seems… a little mean, to take their scroll like this."

"This test isn't about mean or not," Ino replied, surprisingly even-headed, "it's about obtaining the information that we need," she moved to checking to see if Sasuke had hidden the scroll in his shirt somewhere.

"I guess," Chōji shrugged and grabbed another chip, he was almost out and only had two more bags for their whole time in the forest. This could end up being problematic.

"Argh!" Chōji was startled by Ino's sudden exclaim, "Where is it!"

"Geeze, calm down. Where is what?" Shikamaru's voice suddenly appeared behind them, making both of them jump.

"Sasuke!" Naruto was right behind him and rushed forward, stopping by the Uchiha's side and trying to gently shake him awake, careful because of what Sakura had told her.

"And what do you think you're doing, Ino-pig?" Sakura's arms were crossed as she also stepped into view. Ino laughed a bit nervously and discretely moved her hands away from patting down Sasuke's chest.

"Checking for other injuries of course!" she replied, then going along with her lie, "Don't get mad just because you didn't think of it sooner before dropping him off with us."

Sakura's face turned red in furry and she was about to pounce before Naruto's voice stopped her, "Sakura-chan! He's really hot!"

Concern for Sasuke won out over fighting with Ino (it wasn't really a surprise to anyone). And Shikamaru noted the timing in which Naruto had said it as well, he smirked inwardly. Naruto was really becoming someone to watch, or perhaps had always been someone to watch. He wasn't sure which.

"Come on Naruto!" Sakura took charge and between Naruto and herself they lifted Sasuke up and started off, "We've got to get him someplace safe where we won't be attacked so we can work on breaking his fever. Tsunami-san taught me about some plants that could help while we were in wave."

With that Team Seven left Team Ten to ponder they're reactions.

"So what were you looking for?" Shikamaru voiced, snapping Ino out of her shocked stupor (Sakura had just walked off from a fight with her without so much as a word, after all).

"Their scroll, they must have given it to Sasuke because he was the strongest, but I couldn't find it," Ino replied grumpily, "He must have hidden it in a storage seal or something."

"What a drag. Naruto has their scroll."

"What? No way!"

"Saw it in h-" Shikamaru stopped right as he was about to say 'her pouch', thought for a moment, then continued with an on-the-spot lie, "It's troublesome, but Sakura told me that Sasuke gave it to Naruto because everyone would think that he had it."

"Oh!" Ino exclaimed, completely missing his obvious change in thoughts and fairly obvious lie (he would have to work on that…), flittering into fangirl squeals, "He's so good!"

Shikamaru groaned and rolled his eyes. Women were so troublesome.

.!.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Naruto muttered, surprisingly subdued, as Sakura replaced a cool cloth over Sasuke's forehead.

"I hope so," Sakura replied, "We'll need his help to get to the tower on time, we only have a few days and we still need the other scroll."

"Leave the scroll to me," Naruto replied confidently. She made her signature cross-shaped seal and a couple dozen Naruto's appeared near them, "Alright guys, we need another scroll and we need it fast."

All the Naruto's grinned and high fived before fanning out, leaving the original Naruto and Sakura alone with their male teammate once more.

"What are you doing?" Sakura huffed, grabbing the blonde's arm before she could take off as well, "We need to be subtle!"

"Come on, Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined, "I know what I'm doing!"

Sakura looked into her clear blue eyes for a moment longer, "Alright fine, be careful."

Naruto grinned, "I'll be back soon," she winked before following after a small group of her clones.

Sakura continued to work after Naruto left, finding herbs within a small radius of where they'd left Sasuke, too afraid to go further in fear of someone discovering their little hideout, and setting traps. She just hoped Naruto wouldn't get caught in any of them when she returned.

Despite her best efforts Sasuke's fever only seemed to get worse as the time wore on. She was starting to get frustrated at her seeming lack of ability to do anything to help either one of her teammates.

It was only when her eyes started to get heavy that she realized it was nightfall and Naruto still hadn't returned.

.!.

Naruto, on the other hand, barely noticed the time as she worked. She'd headed back to where their original trap had been set up and salvaged nearly all the materials (what good was a prank, after all, if you couldn't reuse it?) and moved as close to the tower as she dared to set up once again.

Unsurprisingly (or surprisingly, considering their luck recently) it went according to plan and she easily swiped the scroll from the unsuspecting team after throwing around a few insults to their intelligence.

By that time, of course, it was dark. Naruto panicked when she remembered she'd promised Sakura to be back 'soon', so she left the unnamed team hanging by their pants (yes, unfortunately, that was literal) in the trees and took off back to where her teammates were waiting.

"Sakura-chan's going to kill me!" she muttered, leaping from branch to branch up in the trees, the image of an angry Sakura pushed Naruto to move faster.

What happened next nearly caused her to fall out of the trees. In a reflex reaction she flinched and grabbed at her stomach, suddenly panting for breath. The image of Kabuto talking somewhat pleasantly with her and then abruptly hitting her in the stomach with glowing fingertips was suddenly seared into her mind. Stopping on a large branch she leaned up against the truck of the tree and caught her breath, "what in the world…?"

.

Several miles away Orochimaru (in a Kabuto disguise) cursed and took off muttering something about shadow clones and seals. But now there were proctors all over the forest and he wouldn't have another chance like that to go after the Kyūbi host and keep her from interfering in his plans. He'd have to think of another way to get to her.

.

Regaining her breath Naruto blinked, "What was that?" She hoped she wasn't going crazy, maybe she should tell Kakashi-sensei about it when they got out of here, best not to worry Sakura when Sasuke was really hurt.

Sakura!

Naruto forgot her momentary problems and sped off through the trees, once again reminded of Sakura's wrath.

.!.

"Anything could have happened to you!" Sakura's shrill voice seemed far away, almost as though he were underwater.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan!" Naruto replied, he could by the sound of her voice that she was whimpering on the ground or something. Keh, Dobe.

"You were gone all night! I had to stay up and guard Sasuke-kun because I didn't know if anyone was going to come and attack!" What? Guard him? Why in the world would she need to guard him? At least she sounded closer now.

"Okay… but I got the scroll," Naruto's reply was a pathetic attempt to dissuade the pinkette's anger.

"What are you-! … really?" Sasuke sighed in his mind. The pathetic attempt had worked, he couldn't believe his teammate's immaturity some times.

Now… he blocked out the rest of the girls' conversation, figure out why he was sore all over and why Sakura would need to be guarding him all night.

"-you should have seen- Sasuke-Jerk!" he was suddenly sitting straight up and staring at his teammates in alarm.

"Naruto, Sakura," he said, almost mystified, "You're okay?"

" 'Course we are, lazy Jerk," Naruto puffed out her chest proudly, "we even got the second scroll without you while you were sleeping."

"Naruto!" Sakura slammed her fist into the back of the blonde's head, "Sasuke-kun was unconscious with a high fever!" and then realizing what she'd said, "Sasuke-kun! You're awake!" He gave her a 'no duh' look and she blushed, "I, right… sorry. You shouldn't be awake though, your fever was so high!"

"Common, Sakura-chan," Naruto pointed to the bowl that was resting next to Sasuke, "I bet it was your medicine."

"I… maybe," she admitted, but was still staring at Sasuke with worried eyes, not really believing it.

It annoyed Sasuke, he shuddered as a pulse of… something… seemed to run through his veins, making him feel stronger, angrier.

"Hey, Sasuke, you okay?" Naruto's voice caused him to open his eyes (when had he closed them?) "I bet you still hurt," she smirked.

The normality in her voice calmed him down, she wasn't annoyingly worried like Sakura, but she did know just how to state her reservations in a way that didn't get under his skin, "Shut up, dobe," he shot back, seemingly unaffected, but inside he was worried about what had just happened to him.

"Wanna' race to the tower today?" Sasuke smirked at the challenge in her voice.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun just woke up from a fever and he's probably still injured! He shouldn't even be up and walking for a while!" Sasuke shot her a glare and the strange feeling returned.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto replied softer that Sasuke knew he would have, "that's the reason we need to get out of here as soon as we can. With both scrolls we become a bigger target especially if we look like we've only got two uninjured members," Sasuke was about to protest until she continued, "Shut it, jerk, you look like death warmed over even if you don't feel like it," Sasuke frowned, but couldn't really say anything to rebut that. Naruto let out a frustrated sigh, "Come on! You guys put me in charge of this mission, why not just let me be in charge?"

There was only a second of hesitation before Sakura nodded, "Okay Naruto. I'm sorry."

Sasuke nodded sharply once and looked away.

So off they went.

* * *

><p>Whoo! So many things to remember while I'm writing this (such as the year worth of Naruto dub torture promised by <em>hot dog285<em> if I missed a month! -shiver-, oh the horror!)!

The changes are also starting to compound and soon we'll diverge more seriously from cannon! A lot of you have been asking about that recently. So don't worry: we'll get there. Up to this point though Naru's been acting pretty much the same as in cannon, so nothing really changed because everyone else is pretty much the same (examples: Orochimaru still wants the Sharingan, he doesn't care that Naru's a girl or not, also Gaara and them are all still planning on attacking Konoha because Naru being a girl doesn't affect plans made in Suna… among others.) But now that Naru's starting to make slightly different choices than Naruto and Naru's actions are starting to affect the actions of people around her things will start to diverge (examples: the more-protective Sasuke, Sakura and Sasuke trusting Naru more with things thus leading to events in the forest, etc.). Also if you've got any ideas for the epic divergence: feel free to mention them!

I love to get your guy's feedback! Thanks to _Tempest S._, _EDelta88_, and _Lander Blazer_ for pointing out several things that I missed while writing the last chapter! I've gone back and explained why things happened the way they did (or did it in this chapter, or its part of a bigger plot and will be explained eventually) for the things you all mentioned. So Thanks!

Exam 3 prelims coming soon to a fanfic site near you! :D large divergences in the making!


	14. Chūnin Exam: Prelims? What Prelims?

Chapter 13. Special thanks to _thelazykidwhoshan'tberevealed._

Oh my goodness you guys! It's official! We've passed the 100,000 hit mark! :D More than 700 alerts and over 600 favorites! I love you all! Thank you to all of you! And I apologize for the long wait.

Awwright. Exam three preliminaries cometh! Be prepared for some major divergences from cannon… ;)

* * *

><p>"<em>Sakura-chan," Naruto replied softer that Sasuke knew he would have, "that's the reason we need to get out of here as soon as we can. With both scrolls we become a bigger target especially if we look like we've only got two uninjured members," Sasuke was about to protest until she continued, "Shut it, jerk, you look like death warmed over even if you don't feel like it," Sasuke frowned, but couldn't really say anything to rebut that. Naruto let out a frustrated sigh, "Come on! You guys put me in charge of this mission, why not just let me be in charge?"<em>

_There was only a second of hesitation before Sakura nodded, "Okay Naruto. I'm sorry."_

_Sasuke nodded sharply once and looked away._

_So off they went._

.!.

It took the whole day for them to actually reach the tower. It was slow going with Sasuke in his condition, he was as quick to anger as he was to tire (or rather be overcome again by a wave of pain) and then get angry over not being able to go farther without a break.

But Naruto understood what he was feeling (at least what it felt like to be a burden to the team) so she kept Sakura from getting too twittery over him.

"Are you sure you don't need to rest, Sasuke-kun?"

"Are you still feeling okay, Sasuke-kun?"

"Sasuke-kun, you look hot, do you need some water?"

"I think we should stop soon now Sasuke-kun, we've been going for a while."

"Sasuke-kun, you haven't eaten anything all day, you need some nutrients."

It was no wonder really, why he was getting so angry.

Naruto, who had developed a sixth-sense for these things, could tell when he was about to snap and appropriately diffused the situation. Usually she just bad mouthed her Uchiha teammate and focused Sakura's attention (albeit this attention was much more violent) on her instead of Sasuke, if only for a few moments. It was enough for Sasuke to take a breath and calm his nerves slightly before the pinkette was onto him again.

Naruto sighed and rubbed her head with a wince, "Aww! But Sakura-chan!" she continued with the degrading comment from earlier, "It's true! He really does have a stick up his-"

-THWACK-

"No he doesn't!" Sakura huffed and crossed her arms and then added an afterthought, "And a lady shouldn't say such things!"

Naruto just stuck out her tongue immaturely through her developing black eye.

Needless to say it was a huge relief to all three of them when the tower was finally visible through the thick forest.

Seals were opened and former teachers were poofed into existence before them. Somehow they got on the subject of strengthening their bodies (earth) and minds (heaven), but at this point Sasuke and Sakura were practically out of energy so Naruto was the only jumping for the celebration of passing the second round (also the only one not paying strict attention to the veiled advice Iruka was giving them).

"I want you guys to be careful in the third round," Iruka's forced smiles stopped, "Especially you, Naru-chan. I worry about you."

Naruto looked up at her former teacher and brother, "The day you gave me this headband, Iruka-sensei, I became a fully-fledged ninja of the Hidden Leaf! You were the one who believed in me enough to give it to me. I won't let your faith in me go so lightly, Iruka-sensei. So don't worry about me!"

There was a moment of shocked silence from the other three people in the room. Then Iruka smiled for real, "You're right, I'm sorry Naru-chan."

Naruto stuck her tongue out playfully, "And don't call me Naru!"

Iruka only ignored her final remark, "anyway, you guys did pretty good this round, there's still a few hours until the end of the test, so follow me and we can get you some food and water and a room to rest in until then."

"What about a medic?" Sakura was up almost instantly, "One of the competitors did something funny to Sasuke-kun. We don't know what it is."

Sasuke's face darkened at the thought of being weak enough to need Sakura to cry injured for him, but obligingly pulled the collar of his shirt down to show the mother-hen academy teacher what had happened to his neck.

Iruka was shocked out of rambles on how they needed to be more careful and the what-not when he saw the mark, "what-! Which team was this!"

"He wore the grass symbol," Sasuke replied shortly.

.!.

"Yeah we can get 'em a medic, they got in early enough," Anko replied with a non-caring wave to Iruka, "By the way, what happened to telling 'em they were out of the exam?"

Iruka ignored the smug grin on her face and continued, "One of the members of the team from grass placed some sort of seal on Sasuke. I don't recognize it, so I don't know what kind of effects it's having on him and I want someone to look at it."

Anko's whole persona changed in an instant, "Grass?"

Iruka blinked at the suddenly serious atmosphere, "That's what he told me."

Anko swore, "We have to get the Hokage!"

"I heard, Mitarashi-san," the Sandaime spoke from the doorway.

"Sandaime-sama!" Iruka turned and hastily bowed, "What's going on?"

"We intercepted Orochimaru within the forest masquerading as one of the genin from Grass. The true team had been killed just before the second exam."

"Orochimaru!" The academy teacher blanched, "You mean one of the legendary Sanin?"

"The same, it was probably Orochimaru that marked Uchiha Sasuke," the Sandaime sighed heavily, there was a few moments of silence as the ninja in the room left their leader to his thoughts, "Get me Kakashi." An ANBU appeared in a bow before disappearing again in search of the Hatake.

"It's a wonder the kid is alive at all," Anko muttered, "get it under control quick or he may not be."

On that pleasant note Iruka was excused from the room, more worried than ever.

.!.

Naruto was completely out of it on a cot in the room that Iruka had led them to, snoring lightly and grinning in her sleep. Sakura watched her female teammate with a respect that had grown over the course of their time in the forest. Naruto, er… Naru… It was strange to know that the girl's real name was Naru, but still think of her as Naru_to_. Maybe she would eventually grow into it.

"Sakura," Sasuke's voice broke her from her thoughts (Sasuke was the very topic of thought she was trying to avoid to keep from worrying to death, but it really wasn't working out as well as she hoped).

"What is it, Sasuke-kun? Are you in pain again? Do you want some water?" she was about to continue before he cut her off.

"What happened after I left."

Sakura paused, "After you… do you mean when that Grass genin attacked you?"

_He wasn't a mere genin_, Sasuke wanted to sneer, but he simply nodded instead.

"Well, me and Naruto kept working on the trap and we got just about finished when you… well, I mean, it wasn't you, but it looked like you… came back and asked where Naruto wanted you… him?... to work. Then all of a sudden Naruto attacked him. She could tell it wasn't you by the way he said her name, but I still thought it was you," her cheeks colored in shame, "so I went to go stop her. But then that creepy Grass-nin was standing there instead of you and he said he'd found you and attacked you. Naruto told me to go find you while she fought him off."

"You _left_ her with him? _Alone_?" Sasuke barely fought off his outburst of anger.

"I know!" Sakura replied heatedly, accepting the blame he was placing on her, "it was stupid of me! But I wasn't thinking about that at the time, I was worried about you!" Sasuke scowled at her but she continued, "I realized what I'd done when I found you. I don't know if you remember but you wanted to go help her even when you were in so much pain…" Sakura paused and collected her thoughts, "I realized that I'd broken the first thing that Kakashi-sensei told us about abandoning our friends. So then I picked you up and started heading back, I had no idea what I was going to do but I ran into Team 10. Ino and Chōji agreed to watch you and Shikamaru came back with me to go help Naruto.

"By the time we got back the other guy was gone and Naruto and Lee, he'd showed up sometime, I don't know when, they were both a little bruised, but otherwise okay. Shikamaru somehow figured out that Naruto was a girl, it might have been Lee calling her by her real name, but I don't know for sure," Sakura looked up at Sasuke, he'd frozen when she mentioned Shikamaru's deduction, "Then we went back, got you and hid out. Naruto made a bunch of clones and came back the next morning with a scroll and that's when you woke up."

"Seems like you all had quite the adventure," Sakura and Sasuke jumped up and turned to the back wall.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura screamed, "When did you get here?"

Kakashi only eye-smiled with a small wave, "I was here long enough," he replied vaguely.

"That's not an answer!"

Naruto muttered in her sleep and Sakura clamed a hand over her mouth, only just realizing how loud she'd been.

Sasuke brought a hand to his neck and trembled slightly as another wave of pain washed over him.

"Let me see you neck, Sasuke," Kakashi walked over lazily and Sasuke frowned (he hated showing weakness in front of other people) but followed orders. Kakashi was quiet for a long time, "Sorry Sasuke…" he sighed, "I'm going to have to pull you out of the exam."

"What!.?" the last Uchiha snarled and tore away from his teacher, "You can't!" a black pattern started to weave its way down his arm and across his face.

"This is exactly why," Kakashi replied calmly, putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder to steady the scared girl, "The seal is messing with your head, toying with your emotions in an attempt to give the illusion of power. You've been angrier than usual, right? And whenever you get angry it feels like you're stronger?"

Sasuke stopped, Kakashi was right. The pain wasn't there anymore, but he felt a rush of power from the moment he'd given in to the enmity that had been building up inside of him. He looked down at his hand in shock as a black pattern faded from his skin.

"What's going on?" Naruto sat up from the bed suddenly wide-awake.

They all blinked at her, the serious mood defeated, "Sorry Naruto, did we wake you?" Kakashi grinned at her.

"No… I don't think so," she grinned right back, rubbing the back of her head, "I just had a strange dream…" she started going off about Sasuke eating all her ramen in front of her and not letting her have any. They all stared, deadpan.

"That's… that's quite the dream…" Kakashi said back half-heartedly. There was silence for a moment.

Sasuke broke it, "You can't take me out of this exam, I need to become a chūnin."

"What? What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"The strange mark that we saw on Sasuke-kun is some sort of seal and Kakashi-sensei needs to take it off of him," Sakura supplied.

"I can't remove it," Kakashi corrected, "I can only attempt to reverse seal it and stop the effects."

"What if I don't want the effects stopped?" Sasuke asked harshly, "It's making me stronger, right?"

"Then it'll kill you," before they could react, Kakashi continued, "The man who gave you that mark was no genin. That was Orochimaru of the Sanin. He wants you, Sasuke, because you are the last Uchiha. He plans to take your Sharingan." Kakashi had no idea if that was actually the Sanin's plan, but knowing Orochimaru's obsession with jutsu he figured it had to have something to do with the Sharingan.

Sasuke was quiet, he knew there was really no choice but to go with Kakashi. But if he left the exam now-!

"I… I think you should go with Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun," Sakura spoke up, still a bit frightened by what had happened earlier.

Sasuke nodded after only a moment and another dose of pain originated from his neck.

Naruto was sulking, "I wanted to fight you in the next round, Jerk," Sasuke 'hn'ed in reply, "I guess we'll just have to wait until after I become a chūnin," she smirked.

Sasuke smirked, "don't think that getting a promotion is going to make you stronger than me, dobe. You actually have to have talent for that," his own words seemed to reassure him in his decision to go with Kakashi, "Oh wait, you need talent for the promotion too. I guess I'm safe," it didn't matter if he didn't become a chūnin right now; he could still keep up with his team even if they did pass.

"What was that?" Naruto jumped off the cot with the intent to punch the dark-haired boy into the other wall.

"Naruto!" Sakura intervened and slammed her fist into the blonde's head before she could get to Sasuke.

"Ow! What'd I do Sakura-chan?" she whined.

Kakashi sighed in relief. It looked like his team wouldn't suffer any real long-term effects from this situation. He placed a guiding hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "Good luck in the prelims you two. I'll meet you there when I'm done with Sasuke. Make sure you head down on time."

"What? Prelims? What are you talking about Kakashi-sensei?"

Oops… Sakura _would_ catch onto that wouldn't she? So without another word Kakashi vanished down the hall with Sasuke in tow.

He could only grin at the freaking out he knew his two girls would be doing with the new-found information. And it was in no way sadistic. Honest.

.!.

"What do you mean we have to have a preliminary elimination!" Kiba shouted with a raised fist.

"It would take way too long to hold a tournament with twenty participants. We cut your numbers in half now and then the time issue solves itself," Hayate coughed, "It's happening now so those of you who don't want to continue I suggest you drop out now."

"Now?"

"We just got out of the forest!"

Protests from some of the more vocal participants rang out.

"Silence!" The Sandaime spoke from the front of the room, "When you are on a dangerous mission your enemies will not care if you've just come out of a major battle or not. They will prefer to attack you while you are weak. This is not your decision to make."

"Like I said," Hayate continued for the Hokage, "If you don't want to continue you can drop out now."

"I guess I'm out," Kabuto stepped forward.

Naruto frowned and realized she'd forgotten to talk to Kakashi about the strange vision she'd gotten in the forest of Kabuto punching her in the gut. She resolved to ask after the preliminaries.

Kakashi waltzed into the back line of instructors at the front of the room. Sakura and Naruto looked up at him intensely.

He gave them a subtle 'thumbs up' and both girls breathed a sigh of relief as they were herded into the balconies above while Rock Lee and Akadō Yoroi were called to be the first match up.

He met them on the balcony, "Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura called with relief, "How's Sasuke-kun?"

"The sealing went well," Kakashi replied easily, "but it's going to be up to him whether or not it actually works. He should recover just fine from the effects of both seals within the next few days as well."

Sakura placed a hand over her heart, "Good," she closed her eyes with a small smile.

"Good thing, too!" Naruto replied hotly, "I want to kick his butt, but only if he can go all out on me!"

Kakashi grinned at his girls, "It's good for both of you to be worried about your teammate," he ruffled Naruto's hair and placed a gentle hand on Sakura's head, "he's safe right now though, so you two should both be paying more attention to the matches. You could be fighting any one of these people in the near future."

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura replied dutifully.

Naruto grinned widely and jumped up on the railing, "Go Fuzzy-brows!"

Kakashi blinked, 'Fuzzy-brows'? He hid his laughed behind his mask.

.!.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee saluted his older look-alike, "I am first! I will start these exams most youthfully with a win for Konoha!"

"Go Lee!" Gai gave a Good Gai™ pose in return, complete with the twinkling smile.

"Yes, Gai-sensei!"

Several people shuddered at the display. Tenten's hand seemingly involuntarily shuddered and reached for her ever-present scroll. Neji's mouth twitched up into a sneer for a split second before turning away, completely disgusted.

Yoroi didn't bother hiding his contempt for his opponent, "Of course I get stuck with the shinobi wannabe."

"We shall have an honorable battle!" Lee replied, seeming to not notice the insult that had just been sent his direction."

"Begin!" Hayate lifted his arm and back out of the middle of the floor, and without even waiting for the proctor to get all the way back Lee started his charge with a lightning-speed fist.

Yoroi responded by dodging with a hairs width, "What-?" he started to question the sudden speed before Lee was continuing his attack with a leg that _shouldn't have been able to move that fast from that position._

Lee gave the other boy no time to think, let alone time to complete a jutsu, and pushed him back against the wall of the area rather quickly. After getting brushed by another punch Yoroi decided that enough was enough.

To be moving that fast his opponent had to have excellent control over directing chakra to the muscles in his body so before the green beast pulled his hand away from the latest punch Yoroi reached up with his own to latch onto his forearm and began to drain the chakra there.

Momentarily surprised that Yoroi's first counter attack wasn't an attack at all Lee paused momentarily to watch Yoroi's face go from triumphant to confused to strained and finally settled on fear in a matter of milliseconds. Lee decided that he probably didn't really want to know what his opponent was trying to do to him and used the arm he was attached to lift him off his feet and kick him soundly back into the center of the arena.

Yoroi's face made a dent in the floor when he hit it.

"Winner, Rock Lee!" Hayate commented between coughs as the medics worked on trying to peel Yoroi's unconscious form from the ground.

"Yeah! You go Fuzzy-brows!" Naruto cheered from the balcony.

Lee grinned with a twinkle on his teeth and waved at her before jumping back up to his end of the balcony to embrace his sobbing sensei.

Most people, having learned their lesson the first time, looked away before the scene could proceed further and saved their minds from severe scarring. Nothing could prevent their ears from hearing though.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"The next round!" Hayate jumped in as soon and the medics had left the room with their newest patient, and the names flashed on the screen above, "Aburame Shino and Abumi Zaku."

Naru grinned, "Yeah Shino! Kick his butt!"

The stoic bug user, to the surprise of many who knew him, turned and nodded to the blonde in recognition of her support, "I shall do my best, Naruto-san."

Kiba blinked, "That's more than you said to me practically the whole time in the forest!" he complained and his teammate decisively ignored the protest before heading down to the arena floor.

* * *

><p>I wanted to get this to you before Christmas! But alas we were visiting family in a location that didn't have an internet connection… and then during new years a friend of mine introduced me to Assassin's Creed for the first time. I didn't get instantly addicted to it or anything… -shifty eyes-<p>

Anywho. Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed! And for those silly people who review anonymously (So many of you have so many good ideas that I would love to just discuss with you, but alas! There is no way to contact you! ):

_thelazykidwhoshan'tberevealed _– Thank you very much for the insight! Now that you've mentioned it I can keep a better eye out for Mary-Sueness and I can see how you would think it would be going in that direction! I'll try to keep it toned down, it wasn't my intention!

_d _– too lazy for even a name, hu? ;) But yes, I do indeed play Go. There used to be a Go club at my university… but sadly no one maintained it and it no longer exists… :( I do own a board, but no one around me plays so it just kinda' sits as decoration in my front room.

Alrighty! How did you all like the epic, major divergence? Gasp! Sasuke being taken out of the exam? Betcha' didn't see that one coming… actually I didn't either. Haha! It just sort of wrote itself. Please tell me what you think about the whole thing. Where do you think it's going now? ;) Will Sasuke stay in the village? Why do you think so? And now that Sasuke's not in the third round what's going to happen with all that? Dun dun dun! Leave a review, but please don't be anonymous, I love to talk to you guys!


	15. Chūnin Exam: The Prelims Begin

Chapter 14! Here be cannon divergence. ;)

Hey all... yeah... it's been a year. A lot of things have happened and I'm in my last semester of undergraduate study in university so I've been super busy, but maybe you're all still there? XD I hope you all haven't given up on me this time... I am still writing this story in case any of you were wondering. (which reminds me, you can all thank_ Meota Tsukiko_ for messaging me requesting an update status to get this chapter out to you)

Keep an eye out for anything that seems contradictory or poorly explained (now that we're getting into the thick of things it will be easier for me to miss plot holes and stuff, so I'm depending on you all! :D).

Also shout out to _scurryfunger _as your fantastic pairing idea has taken over some of the proceedings in the exam. ;) And on that note please enjoy this chapter!

.!.

"_The next round!" Hayate jumped in as soon and the medics had left the room with their newest patient, and the names flashed on the screen above, "Aburame Shino and Abumi Zaku."_

_Naru grinned, "Yeah Shino! Kick his butt!"_

_The stoic bug user, to the surprise of many who knew him, turned and nodded to the blonde in recognition of her support, "I shall do my best, Naruto-san."_

_Kiba blinked, "That's more than you said to me practically the whole time in the forest!" he complained and his teammate decisively ignored the protest before heading down to the arena floor._

.!.

Shino moved calmly back to his spot on the balcony in a stunned silence. Zaku was unconscious on the ground and was sporting several less hands than he had been at the beginning of the match.

"G-good match, Sh-shino-kun," Hinata mumbled and pushed her fingers together nervously.

Shino nodded to his teammates, "Thank you Hinata-san, Naruto-san," he also turned to the blonde who was loudly cheering his victory. She grinned back brightly.

Sakura's eye was twitching at the carnage on the arena floor, "remind me to never get him angry," she whispered conspiratorially to Ino.

"Only if you do the same for me, forehead," the blonde replied, just as freaked out as her former friend.

Soon they realized they had almost had a normal conversation without fighting and went about glaring and ignoring each other again.

Two more names flashed up on the screen as soon at the bodily parts were removed from the ring.

Sabaku no Kankurō vs. Tenten

"Yosh!" Lee loudly exclaimed, "My youthful teammate! It is your turn to show the power of that the beautiful, youthful-," he didn't get to finish his sentence as his weapon specialist teammate slammed her fist into his face.

There was a moment of silence before she grinned and jumped over the railing, leaving Lee (who was more surprised at the attack than hurt by it) to pull himself back to his feet.

"Lee! You must be more vigilant!" Gai was next to his prized pupil in an instant.

"Yes Gai-sensei!" people were once more forced to look away as the beasts of Konoha once again started hugging to a sunset-lit background.

"Feh," the genin from sand, Kankurō, scoffed, "Here I was hoping for a challenge, but of course I get paired against a girl."

Tenten smirked at the insult and ignored the angered feminists on the balconies, "Hah, I would warn you not to underestimate me, but I know it's already too late so I'll just have to beat you into the ground to pay you back for the insult to my gender."

"Begin!" Hayate raised his hand from the sideline.

For a moment, neither leaf nor sand moved, then by some unseen mark they both darted forward. Kankurō dropped the large wrapped object on his back in favor of increased speed as he matched Tenten in a taijutsu bout.

He started with a vicious right hook aimed straight for her face, and was only half surprised when she seemed to dodge it with ease (after all with those two green freaks on her team he figured she had to have gained _some_ survival skills). He was wholly surprised, however, when she proceeded to grab his still-extended arm and pull him off balance to execute a powerful knee to his exposed abdomen. Recoiling from the blow he tried to pull away but the girl kept coming, giving him little time to respond to her furious attacks.

"Just because my sensei is embarrassing to be seen with in public doesn't mean he's not the most skilled taijutsu user in the village," she explained with a haughty grin and a final kick to chest to propel him backward into the wall.

Kankurō hit the wall hard, cracking the back of his skull against the wall with enough force to knock him out… that is if he'd been there at all.

"What!?" Tenten backed up a pace as the body of what she had assumed to be her opponent rose awkwardly from the heap he'd fallen in. 'Awkwardly' because he wasn't standing up, his upper body was just rising from the ground in a way that no human muscles could replicate. Tenten quickly scanned the area and her eyes fell on the pile of wrappings that Kankurō had dropped before. Her opponent was smirking through them with fingers outstretched to the other body.

"So you've got something else to do the fighting for you?" Tenten goaded, "And you called _me _the girl? You're the one wearing make-up!"

"It's not make-up! It's war paint!" Kankurō's smirk dropped at the insult and he turned to glare at his snickering blonde teammate, "Shut up, Temari!"

Tenten decided that if they weren't her enemy right now she might like that Temari girl, but quickly turned her thoughts back to the match as Kankurō looked like he was starting to get serious. She recognized he seemed to be an accomplished puppeteer and made note to watch out for the unnatural movements that puppets could perform.

"YOSH! Tenten!"Lee's voice exploded over the arena, "Show them what it means to be burning with the power of YOUTH!"

Used to such outbursts, her brain hardly even registered that her teammate was ever talking and focused on reaching for her weapons; if her opponent was getting serious it was time for her to bring out her specialty.

Her hand moved to her weapon pouch and in a swift movement she unleashed several kunai in a single throw. The clothes on the puppet were pinned to the wall, slowing it down a little, and she darted forward with the intent of catching Kankurō off guard. Kankurō saw it coming even though he wasn't in the best position to respond and equally as fast countered her move defensively.

Only instinct caused Tenten to duck at that moment when a barrage of kunai from the direction of the puppet flashed overhead, without much thought a seal scroll was pulled from her belt and returned the favor. But now the puppet was on the move, it blocked every kunai and shiruken that had exploded from the scroll from hitting Kankurō.

In a swift movement that she had no chance of defending against the puppet had its arms and legs wrapped around her body, pulling her limbs into awkward positions she couldn't break free from.

Kankurō, still fuming over the make-up comment, grinned wickedly, "Now… what to do with you…? I could break an arm," to punctuate his words he twiddled a couple fingers and the puppet started putting pressure on Tenten's arm, pulling her elbow to extension and then some.

Tenten started screaming and a massive protest arose from the balconies. Hayate called the match over.

"What about an ankle?" Kankurō continued without pause, the puppet once again mirrored his words, twisting Tenten's ankle viciously to the side, a crack was heard as several bones were broken. Her screaming intensified until she hung limp, passed out from the pain. Another wave of protest and Hayate once again called the match.

"Maybe your neck," Kankurō made to finish the thing, but before he could move he found himself surrounded by several jōnin, including the ref, with his hands and fingers locked into position by several lengths of wire and the chakra strings holding his puppet cut (Kakashi discretely repositioned his forehead protector).

"This match is over," Hayate spoke clearly, calmly, for the third time with a hand on his sword poised and ready to strike, "Continue and I'll be forced to disqualify you," however his glare promised more than just disqualification.

"Fine," Kankurō replied, lowering his hands and backing up a pace, the jōnin straitened from their threatening poses and the medics hurried out to the floor.

.!.

Naruto's face fell from the cheers that she had been shouting the whole match at the scene below, "Who do you think you are!?" she screamed at him.

Kankurō only glanced her way with a vicious smirk before completely ignoring her and returning to his place on the stands.

Naruto was literally half-a-second away from launching herself over the railing and teaching him a lesson herself before Kakashi's hand on her shoulder stopped her, "There's no fighting outside the ring," he reminded her, "and don't worry, Guy's student will be just fine after a couple weeks rest."

This sated her need for revenge at the moment so Naruto, still frowning however, lowered her foot back to the ground. Kakashi gave her hair a comforting ruffle and stepped back as well.

"Let's get the next competitors down here," Hayate was staring expectantly up in the stands with the next names already flashing on the screen above him.

Nara Shikamaru vs. Inuzuka Kiba

Shikamaru groaned loudly and banged his head audibly against the wall he was leaning on.

"Ha!" Kiba laughed, "I got this in the bag if I'm up against lazy-bones here!" with his customary smack talk officially started, he and Akamaru were quickly over the railing and onto the floor.

Shikamaru, in his typical lazy fashion, simply pushed himself up from the wall and walked leisurely down the stairs, "troublesome."

"Hurry up, Lazy!" Kiba yelled impatiently when he was halfway down.

"No, that would be too much effort," Shikamaru replied calmly, earning a couple snickers from around the room.

By the time Shikamaru got to the arena floor (in all honesty it was probably only another ten seconds) Kiba was practically whining out of boredom, losing his energy to fight.

Thus he was not as prepared as he should have been when Hayate called the match, "Begin!"

Finally getting his chance to fight, he sprung into action, only to find himself not moving. Shikamaru stood before him wearing a lazy smirk with his hands folded into his signature shadow imitation technique, "Kagemane no jutsu, Success."

Kiba growled at being caught off guard, but even though he couldn't move he could still turn this match around. Shikamaru, no matter how smart he was, had forgotten one thing.

"Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba shouted, his companion, not caught by the shadow, did what he was trained to do.

Shikamaru was quickly forced to defend himself and Kiba felt like a complete idiot for having to copy whatever movement his fellow nin was doing.

When the other boy started running away from Akamaru's attacks Kiba assumed it would only be a matter of time before Shikamaru got tired out and had to release his jutsu.

Then he hit the wall full speed.

Dazed and fading in and out of consciousness at this point, he could hear Hayate declaring Shikamaru the winner and Akamaru pining near his face.

"A ninja always pays attention to his surroundings and uses them for his advantage," he must have blacked out for a moment because in the next second Shikamaru was at his side helping him up and supporting him back up to the balcony.

Then Kiba realized that Shikamaru had played the whole match right into his hands, completely controlling it from the moment their names had been called. He'd known the Nara was smart, but to be _this _smart… Kiba could feel a cold chill run up his spine, suddenly grateful that Shikamaru was on their side.

"Haha!" Naruto laughed as the two reached the balcony again, "You lost by running into the wall, Kiba!"

Kiba, instantly cured of his half-conscious state, launched into attack mode once more, "Shut up, Naruto!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "troublesome," and leaned back against the wall to relax once more.

"If I had been fighting you then I would have used an awesome jutsu that made me and Akamaru ten times stronger!" Kiba argued.

"Oh yeah! Well then I would have beat you into the ground at the same time as Akamaru!" Naruto replied, she paused and then addressed the dog, "No offense Akamaru."

The pup yipped happily in reply; Shikamaru noted this as another indicator he had missed that Naruto was female. She and Akamaru had always gotten along famously even though she and Kiba only really got along when they were escaping class together. Shikamaru had also noted then that Akamaru was always gentler and more responsive around the female populace of the class and had wondered why it was similar with the blond prankster.

He groaned to himself and muttered another "troublesome," before turning back to watch the competition's abilities in peace.

Hyūga Hinata vs. Hyūga Neji

The names flashed up on the screen and Kiba's fight with Naruto instantly died, "crap."

Naruto blinked and turned to look as well, "What? What's going on?"

Hinata's hands lifted to her mouth and she began to tremble.

Naruto watched as Lee's broody teammate confidently made his way to the floor.

"Hinata," Kiba was suddenly at her side, "You don't have to do this, forfeit the match."

"I-I-I…" Hinata stuttered harder than Naruto had ever heard before.

"Common Shino," Kiba looked to the bug user, "Back me up here."

Shino gave his female teammate a look that spoke volumes between them, even through his sunglasses, "Hinata-san is free to follow the nindō that she chooses."

Something in Hinata changed and she looked up sharply (well, for her at least) into Shino's eyes, he nodded and turned away to study her cousin waiting on the floor.

"Shino!" Kiba complained, "That doesn't help!"

"A-actually, Kiba-kun," Hinata spoke up, a fire lit in her eyes.

Kurenai blinked as she watched the change come over her student, she had seen it several times in training, but never during a battle or a mission. Her self-depreciation would always win out over this rare look of confidence in stressful situations.

Naruto, not really understanding the proceedings but wanting to input anyway, resorted to her usual loud self, "Yeah! Go Hinata! Kick his butt!" Naruto and Hinata locked eyes for a moment and Hinata's resolve strengthened.

"I-I won't give up," she replied and turned to the stairs.

Neji on the floor raised a cynical eyebrow for a moment, _What a bunch of losers_, his lips twitched into a hateful sneer for half a second before regaining his usual indifferent appearance.

"Hinata-sama."

"Neji-nii-san."

"They're related!?" Naruto screamed disbelievingly.

* * *

><p>And that's the end... for now!<p>

What did you think? No one's paired up with the right person! (:) mwahahaha) I did say there would be cannon divergence, with Sasuke gone _something_ had to change! Maybe you want to suggest something for future chapters? Or maybe I totally misspelled a word (such as _kezmet_ pointed out several chapters ago that I used bride in place of bridge... haha! maybe I'll get around to fixing that sometime...). Or maybe you miss Pakkun as much as I do!

Unfortunately it will be a while before I post again (17 science credits and three part time jobs are a serious sap of my time) but I just wanted to give you all hope that I haven't abandoned this story! Until next time!


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